


Addicted to Love

by madamebomb



Series: The Smoke Demons Series [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Sexual Content, Sokkla, Zuki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-23 14:48:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 141,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4880938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamebomb/pseuds/madamebomb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko's councilors have decided that he's going to find a wife-whether he wants to or not. Meanwhile, Suki is torn between her budding feelings for Zuko, and a strained relationship with a mysteriously absent Sokka. Who will she choose, and what does Sokka have to do with a plot to assassinate Zuko?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Part I:**

* * *

 "Do you know how to dance?“ Zuko asked her point-blank as she entered his suite with a knock. Suki stopped dead in her tracks in confusion and stared at him.

Zuko was standing in the middle of the room with a panicked look on his face, a crumpled scroll in his fist.

Suki’s painted eyebrow went up as she slowly closed the door behind her. "Yeah. Why?”

“Because they expect me to dance at this…this thing and I don’t dance!”

A grin broke out over her face as she stared at him, wild with panic. “And how did a member of the royal family, who had the best teachers, the best instructors and the best upbringing, manage to avoid both learning how to dance, and doing it in a public setting?”

“Are you laughing at me?” Zuko demanded as she approached him and took the scroll from his hand.

“Maybe a little,” she said, scanning the scroll. “So this is what’s got all the generals and nobles in a tizzy. Does this have anything to do with the plan to marry you off?”

Zuko scrubbed his hands over his face. “Let’s put it this way, invitations have been sent out to every single woman of high birth in the Fire Nation aged seventeen to thirty. My Council wants me married off yesterday and producing heirs last week.”

“You look like you’re panicking.”

“I’m finding it a little hard to breathe,” he admitted, pacing back and forth in front of her.

“That’s understandable. After all, how can you breathe with no heir?”

Zuko stopped in his tracks and swiveled on her. “That’s not funny.”

Suki grinned at him. “It was a little funny.”

“Shut up,” he said, fighting a smile. He took the paper back from her and bent over it at her side. “When they brought up the idea, I just… I didn’t think they’d do it. I didn’t think they’d…pimp me out like this.”

“No one’s pimping you out, Zuko. They’re not going to make you marry anyone you don’t want to.”

“They would if they could,” he groused, scanning the invitation again with an obsessive expression on his face. “The Council has been pressuring me to marry someone, anyone, for two years now. Ever since Mai and I broke up.”

Suki noted the absence of bitterness in his voice as he said his ex-girlfriend’s name. Once up on a time, that had not been the case. Getting over her had taken a long time, and she’d been there for Zuko every step of the way, lending support and a commiserating ear when he needed it.

They’d grown close over the years through sheer proximity. As his bodyguard, they saw each other every day. They even trained together three days a week at Zuko’s insistence. Their training sessions, he said, were the highlight of his week. She had no doubt about that. Between gruelingly long council sessions, his duties and the constant pressure of ruling a Nation more used to war than peace, it was a wonder Zuko hadn’t cracked yet. More often than not he went sleepless, hungry and neglected his own needs, all in pursuit of caring for his people.

She admired that selflessness, and more often than not, she’d found herself doing the same, mirroring him. They’d spent countless sleepless nights together pouring over law books, maps, supply lists and grievances from citizens with an ax to grind. She probably knew him better than anyone else in the world.

That thought struck her hard and she glanced up at him as he scanned the scroll yet again.

“Well maybe this is a good thing? Maybe you really will meet the girl of your dreams at the ball?” she offered, with a strange, but all-too-familiar flutter in her stomach. She tried to ignore it, just as she always did.

“Doubtful. More likely I’ll meet every scheming social climber in the Nation. Half of them so desperate to marry the Fire Lord they’d cut off a finger if I asked them to,” he said darkly, with a disgusted look on his face. He crumpled the scroll again and tossed it toward his wide, cluttered desk.

“And the other half would probably just be satisfied to share the Fire Lord’s bed for a night. For bragging rights and the sheer pleasure of it all,” she said wistfully, noting the way Zuko’s face flamed red. “So there’s a bright side.”

“Yeah, right. I doubt that,” he mumbled, pacing again.

“I don’t. Do you know how many times I’ve caught some of those supposedly well-bred noble women trying to sneak into your suite wearing nothing but some very see-through robes, a lot of perfume and just a hint of desperation?”

Zuko whipped around to face her, a shocked expression on his face. “WHAT? You’ve never told me that! You’re lying!”

“Am I? Next time you see Lady Shura, tell her I think she should get that mole on her left butt-cheek checked. Looks a bit iffy to me,” Suki said, with obvious glee at Zuko’s expression.

“Lady Shura is…she’s old enough to be my mother! She’s…she’s married!”

“Actually, her husband died a couple of years ago, remember? From what I hear though, being married never stopped her from sleeping with every stable boy, litter-bearer and servant in her employ. Woman’s a cougar-rat. Better watch out for her, Zuko. She’ll eat you alive. _Phrowr_ ,” she said, turning her hands into claws and scraping the air as the color drained out of Zuko’s face.

“That’s so disturbing.”

“If you want I’ll just let the next one I find sneak right on in your room and you can properly scandalize the court with tales of your prowess in the bedroom.”

“Now you’re definitely laughing at me.”

“Why would you think that?” she intoned, dropping her hands at her sides as a laugh tumbled out of her. Zuko stared at her for a moment and then sighed, dropping onto the edge of his bed. He ran a hand through his long, unbound dark hair as she crossed the room to sit next to him.

“I mean, it’s not like I have any…prowess anyway,” he mumbled as perched beside him. “I’m not… I mean, I’m not very good at… You know, women.”

Suki bit down on her lip, choosing her words carefully. "But...you dated Mai." 

"I wouldn't say we dated. It was more like being at war with someone you were sleeping with." 

"But you miss her." 

"Sometimes," Zuko let out a gust of air, clapped his hand to his face and fell back on the bed with a groan. "And Sokka? You miss him?"

“Yeah,” she said gently and looked at her lap. “It’s been a long time though. Nearly a year. I mean…it’s not like we’ve even seen each other or anything.” The bitterness in her voice wasn’t as much as it had been even three months previous.

“He  _still_  hasn’t written?” Zuko sat up again and looked at her seriously. He seemed more angry on her behalf than she felt herself, a fact that made her bitterness fade.

“No,” she mumbled. Her letters to Sokka had gone unanswered for six months. Eventually she’d just stopped sending them.

She didn’t know how she felt about her rather distant relationship with Sokka. Mostly she was annoyed, with hurt and sadness adding just a touch of bitterness to the whole thing. They’d spent more time apart than they’d ever had together. He had his life and she had hers and the two had just never properly aligned.

She just wished she knew why his letters had stopped. She kept up regular contact with Katara and according to her, Sokka was fine, just busy building Yu Dao into a republic.

 _Surely not too busy to write a fucking letter_ , she thought for the millionth time, but with a touch of acceptance at the situation.

“I’m honestly kind of over the whole thing. I mean, I’m angry. But… I don’t know,” she finished lamely, unable to articulate her rather confusing emotions. Zuko studied her face and then sighed.

“Well, if you think a year is bad, try over two years.”

“No wonder you’re always in a bad mood,” she said, and he rolled his eyes, flushing again.

“Shut up.”

“You shut up,” she said, bumping his shoulder with hers. He huffed out a small chuckle and then bumped her back. “Seriously though, this ball won’t be so bad. You just have to plaster a smile on your face, eat some room-temperature cheese, and dance with a few girls. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“Are you forgetting that I can’t dance?”

“How did you never learn?” she asked again and he shrugged.

“Father thought it wasn’t proper for a man to learn to dance when I could be learning to firebend instead. It’s not like I’ve ever needed to do it before. I usually just stand against a wall and try and pretend I’m not there. But they’re expecting me to dance with these women. In front of everyone.”

“I can teach you a few dances. I mostly know Earth Kingdom dances, but I’ve learned quite a few of the more popular Fire Nation dances since I moved here.”

“Who taught you?”

“What I do on my nights off are none of your business,” she teased him with dignity, tossing him a mischievous look. He reacted just as she’d expected him to. His face flushed and he looked away quickly, as if to hide his expression.

“Is it…uh…Sokka’s business?” he asked gingerly.

“Mostly it’s Ty Lee’s business,” she said, making him whip around to stare at her, wide-eyed. She stared back seriously and then burst out laughing. “Her current girlfriend is a dancer and we’ve hung out a few times. I like to dance though. It’s like fighting, but with less fists.”

“Really?”

“Sure. Some of the dances even remind me of Firebending forms. Just with no flames involved. I’ve seen the way you move, Zuko. We train together. You’ll make an excellent dancer and I can teach you. Don’t worry. You won’t humiliate yourself at this ball.”

“Sure I won’t. Did you forget the part where they’re pimping me out in desperation?”

She laughed and bumped his shoulder again. “Of course not. That’s my favorite part.”

Zuko groaned and fell back on the bed again, his hands over his face. “I hate how much you’re enjoying this.”

Her eyes slid down his body and she had to forcibly stop herself. She looked away and grinned. “My enjoyment hasn’t even begun. Now, unless I’m mistaken, you have a Council meeting in five minutes and you need to get changed. You don’t want to be late. They might be planning an arranged marriage with one of General Tsung’s legendarily ugly daughters.”

Zuko’s sat bolt upright, eyes wild with fear. “You don’t think they would, would they?”

She laughed as she stood and walked toward the door. “No, probably not. But maybe they’ll put one of them in your bed? Since it’s been two years, you might even thank them.”

Zuko groaned as she winked at him. “I shouldn’t have told you that. That’s it, you’re banished.”

She shot him a cheeky grin over her shoulder as he took off his shirt and reached for his formal robes. “If you banish me, who’s going to teach you how to dance?”

“Lady Shura?” he offered bitterly.

“I bet Lady Shura would love to! Better guard that tight butt of yours though. She’s got grabby hands.”

“SHUT UP!” Zuko laughed as he wadded up his shirt and tossed it at her. She ducked it and swept out into the hall on a peel of laughter, closing the door behind her. She could hear him laughing through the door as she waited for him. Her own laughter faded after a moment and she bit down on her lower lip, a sliver of unease sliding through her as her humor at the situation slipped away to the reality of it.

She swallowed hard, images of Zuko dancing with the prettiest women in the Fire Nation sprang to her mind. A sour feeling burst to life in her guts and she felt it clawing at her insides. It wasn’t a new feeling. It seemed to grow with every woman she caught looking at him, or trying to creep into his quarters.

It was jealousy, she realized. Deep, poisonous, painful jealousy.

“Damn,” she said out loud as she heard Zuko’s footsteps approaching the door at her back.

Zuko opened the door and shot her a smile. “You ready?”

She returned the expression, warmed by his presence. “Yeah. Into the turtle-lion’s den with you.”

“So long as you’re with me, I’ll be fine. Come on,” he said, and his hand briefly touched her lower back, lingered and then, as if he realized what he was doing, he dropped it back to his side. He glanced at her and their eyes met. She felt a zing all the way to her toes and back to her chest and quickly looked away as they walked side by side down the corridor toward the Council chambers.

 _Shit. I’m in trouble_.


	2. Chapter 2

“Here?” Zuko asked with a touch of nervous uncertainty in his voice as his hand came to rest low on her back, right over the swell of her rear end. Sweat soaked his hair, which he’d pulled back, but little strands had escaped and clung to his face. Suki was equally as damp, her short hair frizzing out as the heat of high summer built around them. The massive windows to Zuko’s dojo were open to the breeze coming in off of the sea, but the air was hot and smelled faintly of volcanic ash.

“A…a little higher,” Suki said, reaching behind her and pulling his hand a few inches higher to rest in the small of her back. Zuko’s cheeks flushed even redder, a droplet of sweat navigating his temple, cheek and then the strong line of his jaw.

“Oh. Sorry,” he mumbled in reply as she flashed him a grin that he didn’t return. She stepped a little closer to him, sliding one hand over his shoulder, the other hand finding his. Their fingers folded together as the hand on her lower back shook a little. “Like this?”

“Perfect. See? You’re doing fine,” she said, looking up into his eyes. He stared back, standing stiffly in place as the small music box, their only accompaniment, rewound itself and started plunking out its tinkling song. “Remember what I showed you. Just move your feet and hold on to me.”

“I think I can do that,” he said, and there was a small smile on his lips that faded into concentration.

“One, two, three,” she counted off and then Zuko started moving, leading her in the simple step pattern she’d been showing him for the last half-hour. He moved stiffly, but at an encouraging smile from her, he loosened up with each step. His hand tightened on her lower back as he looked down at his feet, silently counting the steps. She lifted his chin with her thumb and shook her head. “No, no. Look at me, not your feet. Don’t think about the steps. Just move. Concentrate on me.”

Zuko’s gaze locked onto hers and didn’t deviate an inch. His brow knit together in the middle as the hot breeze caught their frizzy hair. She shot him another encouraging smile and he cautiously returned it, letting one corner of his mouth tilt upward.

“How am I doing?” he asked.

“You’re a natural, Zuko,” she replied, nibbling on her lower lip as Zuko turned them in place. “You’ve got the steps down right. You just need to loosen up.”

“You sound like Uncle,” Zuko mumbled.

“Is he coming?”

“Are you kidding me? He wouldn’t miss my humiliation for the world. He’s been trying to get me to settle down and find ‘a nice girl’ for months now. I think he likes teasing me.”

“Don’t we all?”

“Shut it, you,” Zuko said, eyes flashing. She grinned at him and saw that half-smile attempting to force its way past his insecurity. His frown won out and a look of abject misery boiled over him. “How am I supposed to dance with these women in front of everyone? I’m going to make a fool of myself. I can’t do this.”

“You’re dancing just fine right now,” she said as the song wound down and then tinkered out. They stopped dancing and stood together, still locked in a close embrace.

“Because I’m dancing with you,” he said, catching her gaze. “You’re different. You don’t expect anything out of me and I don’t have to pretend to be something I’m not when I’m with you. I can just…be. You know?”

“I, I know,” she said as she took a breath and dropped her arms. Zuko slowly released her and they stared at one another for a long moment as she felt the floor dropping away beneath her, trying in vain not to let her mind wander where it wanted to go most.

_Don’t think about it. Don’t look at him like that… He’s your friend and nothing more and there are a million reasons that things will stay that way. Because of Sokka. You love Sokka, remember? Also, he’s the Fire Lord and what are you? A peasant from Kyoshi. A glorified bodyguard. He wouldn’t look twice at you and why should he? You’re friends. Best friends. Stop being an idiot. It’s just a harmless, stupid crush and it means absolutely nothing…_

She’d been repeating variations of that argument for months. Guilt had set in almost immediately. Every time her mind wandered to Zuko, Sokka flashed in her mind, reminding her of the fact that they were still dating, despite the problems they were obviously having. She loved Sokka. She always had. She’d never believed she’d ever feel any different…but confusion had set in. Her emotions were murky, muddled and untrustworthy.

And being around Zuko was not helping. Thoughts of him dancing with all of the beautiful single women in the Fire Nation made her guts twist up into knots. Being near him was becoming torturous. Her heartbeat betrayed her, quickening at the mere sight of him and pounding out of control whenever he touched her. Dancing with him made her feel lightheaded and unsure of her limbs…which was not helpful with dance instruction. When he held her she was pretty sure she might come out of her skin.

The whole thing was ridiculous. She wasn’t some naïve girl any longer, prone to crushes and silly flirtations, but she couldn’t stop what was happening. Or the sure feeling that, even though she hadn't wanted to admit it out loud, it had been happening for a long time. Too long.

Zuko stared at her, that half-smile back on his lips. He reached out a hand, pushing a strand of her hair, which had grown particularly frizzy in the unrelenting humidity, behind her ear. His hand lingered for a moment as he studied her face. “Thank you for all of this. Without you, I’d be lost with this dancing stuff.”

Suki pushed a wide grin onto her face, though every particle of her being was focusing on the feel of his callused fingertips just below her ear, and the gentle sweep of his thumb along her jawline. She didn’t think he knew that he was doing it, or the effect it was having on her whole body. “You’d be lost without me on a lot of stuff. Let’s be honest.”

Zuko’s hand dropped, eyebrow lifting. “Oh, really? Name one thing.”

“Just one?” she snarked as she turned her back and walked over to the music box, which had rewound and started to replay the song again. She turned it off and closed it, and then glanced over her shoulder at him. “How about the time I saved your ass from that assassin?”

“I could have beaten him.”

“You set the Royal gardens on fire trying. On the plus side, I hated the topiary anyway,” she said and glanced out the wide windows, a view of the gardens in question spreading before her. If she looked closely she could still see the scorch marks on the bricks in places. “And let’s not forget what happened yesterday, shall we?”

Zuko groaned as she turned to face him, his face buried in his hands. “Spirits.”

Suki fought a grin and instead shot him a look of sympathy. “I almost felt bad for you.”

“No, you didn’t! You were laughing!”

“I was  _not._  I was…okay, I  _was_  laughing, but in my defense Lady Shura was half-naked in your bed. And I thought you were going to scream and jump off the balcony.”

“That was horrifying,” Zuko said in a haunted voice, his gaze far away. His hands wandered in front of his chest, vaguely gesturing to a pair of imaginary breasts. “She was so… _naked_ …”

“You’re not the one who had to tackle her. I got up close and personal with those things.”

“I didn’t tell you to tackle her,” he said, lifting his hands.

“I know, but I figured if I got physical and threatened her she’d think twice about trying to get into your suite again. I warned you. It’s only going to get worse, too. The closer you get to this ball the more desperate they’ll be for your attention…” her voice trailed off, thinking of the past week and all of the “random” run-in’s Zuko had had with various generals, noblemen and their eligible daughters who had come to court in preparation for the ball. All of them had clearly been trying to capture the Fire Lord’s eye.

Some of them had been gorgeous, too. She hadn’t been able to stop herself from noticing. Zuko had feigned polite interest and walked away as soon as he could, but she couldn’t stop the nagging thought that some of the girls had at least caught his eye. And some of those girls would definitely be dancing with him; he’d all but promised them.

She didn’t know how to feel about that. Her stomach was in knots and she didn’t like it.

“I’m not a piece of meat,” he mumbled. “I wish I could cancel this stupid thing altogether, but the money’s been spent. I just hate that I’m being forced into this.”

“I know you do. You’re hopeless, you know.”

“I know,” he said, and their gazes met. “Completely. Totally. Hopeless.”

There was an odd catch in his voice, and it sent little zings through her body from head to toe. concern flooded her. “Zuko?”

Zuko stared at her and then seemed to catch himself. His gaze flicked to the window and he swallowed, tilting his head so that his sweat-soaked hair fell across his scarred eye. “Um… I have a Council meeting in an hour.”

“Oh. Yes. I think that’s enough dance practice for now,” she said, flustered, and not sure why. There had been something in Zuko’s face, in the line of his shoulders and a glint in his eye. She saw it sometimes, in unguarded moments. She didn’t know what it meant, but he always seemed to shut down after that and change the subject. “You really are doing well.”

He grunted his thanks, frowning as he turned toward the door. She followed, studying him in silence as they walked to his suite, she one step behind him in deference to his rank as Fire Lord. Zuko didn’t hold with protocol unless he was forced into it (something that endeared him with his subjects), but the nobles and politicians in the palace did. Zuko would often make her walk side by side with him when he caught her bowing to his rank, and whenever he did the courtiers usually gave her the stink-eye. They did it to all of the servants that dared be too familiar with the Fire Lord, regardless of Zuko’s insistence on the subversion of his rank.

Suki in particular was not well-liked among the members of Zuko’s council and the dislike was mutual. Zuko often asked her to attend meetings with him, especially when important matters were being discussed or planned. He said he enjoyed bouncing ideas off of her, and there had been more times than she could count when they’d stayed up late into the night, pouring over law books or maps, attempting to disentangle the trickier problems of ruling a Nation crafted by a hundred-year war and then forced into peace.

Zuko had also taken up the habit of turning to her mid-meeting and asking her opinion on matters being discussed. That didn’t sit well with his more-qualified generals, mathematicians, advisors, lawyers and dukes, who eyed her like a gardener would eye a poisonous weed in their rose garden. That Zuko often took her advice over theirs didn’t help matters in the slightest.

She’d heard them call her “that loud-mouthed painted Earth Kingdom whore” more than a few times. She had yet to respond to any of it, mostly because they carefully kept their spiteful slings out of Zuko’s earshot, and because they’d done nothing more than call her names. She didn’t know what she’d do if their antagonism escalated. Or why they felt so threatened by her presence.

They entered his suite and Zuko promptly took off his sweat-soaked tunic and tossed it on the floor. Suki came up behind him and picked it up.

“Slob.”

“Leave it on the floor. The housekeeper complains when I don’t give her enough work,” Zuko said, walking through his bedroom and into the luxurious bathing room. Suki tossed the shirt at the laundry bin, and then poured herself a glass of water from the sweating pitcher sitting upon the table in anticipation of Zuko’s needs. She gulped half of it and then followed him to the doorway and leaned against the wall.

“You and your excuses. I swear, it’s like you think you’re Royalty or something,” she mused, propping one foot against the wall and staring out the window.

She assessed the room with an expert eye, one hand on the bladed fan she’d tucked into the belt of her lightweight green pants. She’d forgone her full Kyoshi uniform for the dance lessons. Her full uniform had proven to be too hot for the Fire Nation’s punishing summer heat. She was drenched as it was.

“Are you coming with me?” he said as he ducked his head out of the bathing room doorway.

“I’m off-duty in a few minutes, but Ty Lee should be here any minute to accompany you. Unless you want me to?” she volunteered, noticing that he’d taken his hair down. He’d let it grow to the middle of his back, and she loved the sight of it all messy, slung carelessly over one broad shoulder. She bit the inside of her lip and swallowed.

“You don’t have to. We’re just going over accounts for the ball.”

“We’ll you’re gonna be late. Go clean up. You smell.”

“So do you.”

“Yeah, but in my defense I spent most of the day teaching this complete idiot how to dance and it was hotter than the sun in the dojo. I’ve got sweat in places you couldn’t imagine.”

“Oh…I can imagine,” he said, his gaze flicking down across her body and back again. Her eyebrows lifted and he flushed again. “Uh…I’ll just…”

“Yeah.”

“Kay.”

He ducked back into the bathing room and shut the door behind him, leaving her alone in his suite. Suki leaned against the wall, her heart racing and her thoughts reeling.

_Was Zuko just…flirting with me?_

++++

When Zuko finally emerged from the bathing room, it was to find Suki sitting in her favorite chair beside the window, waving her bladed fan in her face in an attempt to push the humid air around. Her hair was delightfully frizzy from the humidity, and as he watched, she lifted it off of her neck and tilted her head as she fanned herself. She had one leg slung over the arm of the chair, the other stretched out before her.

He stopped dead in his tracks, unable to look away from her slender neck, the flushed skin, the way she worried her lip between teeth, or the sweat slowly sliding down her temples. When she noticed that he’d come out of the bathing room, she turned her large blue eyes on him and he felt his heart squeeze like a vise in his chest.

His quick shower had been blessedly cold, but the shock of the water had done very little to knock the thoughts out of his head. Thoughts of Suki; thoughts he should not have been having under any circumstances, thoughts and feelings that had been plaguing him for months now.  

_You’re just being stupid. She’s with Sokka. She’s been with Sokka since you met her and that’s not going to change, so just stop it. She’s your friend and she doesn’t see you as anything but that, and why should she? She’s in love with Sokka, your friend Sokka and the things you’re thinking are wrong. They’re wrong and you wouldn’t do that to her, or to Sokka. No matter how incredible you think she is, or how beautiful, or how she makes you feel. Just stop._

His jumbled thoughts crashed and burned as he stared at her for a long moment. She looked back and her mouth lifted into a small smile that warmed him to his toes. He wrenched his gaze away and dropped down onto another chair beside her, where he pulled on the boots he’d found in the bathing room beside his robes, laid out by his servants.

He stood and tied up his robes with a bit of chagrin. He hated wearing the robes of the Fire Lord; they were stiff and overly pompous and he was never comfortable in them.

“Your collar,” she said, pointing.

“What?” he asked, smoothing it down, and then glancing at her. She shook her head and stood.

“Let me,” Suki mumbled, tucking the fan into her belt and then reaching up to flip his collar up. She fussed with it with both hands, her lip bitten as she concentrated. They were only inches apart and he couldn’t help studying the curve of her lips and the way the blood played in her cheeks. She glanced up and their gazes met yet again. It felt like the floor was dropping out from beneath him. Her hands caught hold of his hair and smoothed it across one shoulder; he swayed in place, an ache low in his guts.  “There.”

Her hands moved down his shoulders and swept across his chest, smoothing imaginary wrinkles in his robes. “Thank you. For everything.”

“My pleasure.”

“Uh… Do you have any plans tonight?” She shook her head and he half-smiled. “Would you like to have dinner with me then? I’d like a nice quiet meal in my room tonight, but I don’t want to eat alone.”

“Trying to avoid your army of would-be suitors?”

“Yes, actually,” Zuko said, blushing again.

“Coward.”

“Maybe.”

“Well, I suppose I’d better have dinner with you then. You know, just in case another desperate woman ends up in your bed and I have to rescue you again.”

“She was just… _so naked_ ,” Zuko said, shuddering, images of Lady Shura in his bed flashing in his mind. The thought of finding her, or any of the various women he’d been introduced to over the past few days in his bed was enough to make him bar the door and hole up in his suite until the ball was over. Seeing his horror, Suki burst out laughing, throwing back her head with glee.

He loved watching her like this. She had a way about her, a way of making him slip out of his usual dour, sour mood. She was like sunshine in a dark place and he gravitated toward the ease in which she laughed or teased him. It was impossible not to like her, and over the years he’d slipped into an easy and comfortable friendship with her that he hadn’t expected, but valued deeply. He’d come to rely on her, not just as a bodyguard, but for her opinions on any number of topics. She had a level-headed way of thinking that was clear and to the point. Her advice was something he not only sought out, but treasured.

_If only I could just keep thinking of her as a friend…_

There was a knock on the door and Suki crossed the room to answer it.

“Hi! How were the dance lessons?” Ty Lee’s bright and cheery voice said from the hallway as Suki moved aside to allow her entry to the suite. The acrobat was dressed in the full Kyoshi uniform, and she looked absolutely impervious to the heat, despite the layers of armor and the paint on her face.  He saw Suki lifting her hand to her frizzy hair in a self-conscious move, probably thinking she looked unkempt. He thought she looked beautiful.

Suki’s gaze cut to him and then back to Ty Lee who grinned at the two of them in turn. “He’s coming along nicely. A few more days and he’ll be seducing the ladies of the Fire Nation with his sweet dance moves.”

“Hmmph,” Zuko harrumphed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“To say nothing of his sparkling personality,” Suki shot at him with a grin and he fought to keep the scowl on his face. She turned back to Ty Lee. “Make sure there aren’t any unexpected visitors to the suite when you get out of the meeting. Zuko’s purity is in jeopardy.”

“Lady Shura again?” Ty Lee asked in a commiserating voice.

“You told the other Warriors?” Zuko exclaimed, horrified.

Suki grinned. “I had to. It’s a threat to you and your other bodyguards have to know.”

“Did she touch you inappropriately? Do you want to talk about it?” Ty Lee asked him in a falsely innocent whisper, gesturing to his crotch.

“I would like to scrub out my brain, actually. Ugh. I’m not talking about it. I keep having flashbacks. Can we please just go to the meeting now?”

“You’re the boss,” Ty Lee said, throwing up her hands and then gesturing to the door.

“I suppose I’ll go clean up now,” Suki said, reaching for the door. Ty Lee gasped and grasped Suki’s arm with a squeal. “What?!”

“I nearly forgot! You got a letter!” Ty Lee said, reaching into her belt and pulling out a sealed scroll. “It’s from Sokka!”

Zuko stared at Suki’s face, noting the change in her expression as she took the scroll from Ty Lee’s gloved hand. She looked shocked, and thoughtful. “Oh. Thanks.”

“That’s great news, isn’t it? He hasn’t written in months!” Ty Lee said brightly and squeezed her other hand.

“Uh…yeah, it’s great news,” Suki said, and then glanced up to meet his gaze for a moment. She looked away quickly as he stood rooted to the floor. He could suddenly feel heat in his hands and the hot roar of fire that wanted to manifest and break free boiling beneath his skin.

“So what’s it say?” Ty Lee pressed, but Suki tucked it into her hand and pulled herself up, a distracted expression on her pretty face. She was chewing on her lip again.

“I should go. See you,” she said, opening the door.

The words burst out of him like a flood, eager to catch her before she walked away. “I’ll see you at sunset?”

“Huh?” she asked, stopping and turning on him.

“For uh…dinner. In my room,” he said lamely.

“Oh,” Suki replied, flushing. “Sure. Yeah. See you then.”

And with that she walked away, leaving him standing in the doorway of his suite, watching her go. Ty Lee came up beside his elbow.  “How long has it been since he’s written her?”

“A few months, I guess. She’s been upset, but she won’t talk about it.”

“ _Hmmph_.”

Ty Lee glanced at him and stopped. “You’re angry.”

“What?”

“You’re angry. At Sokka.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!”

“I don’t like the way he’s treating her, okay? He’s taking her for granted, something I never thought Sokka would do and it’s pissing me off because she deserves better than that!” he burst out,  and flames shot from his fists in a fitful, hot burst, much to his horror.

Ty Lee stared at him, a shrewd and serious light in her eyes that he sometimes noticed when she looked at him and Suki together. She seemed to be contemplating something, because her lips pursed and her lids lowered. Finally she said, "You should just tell her that you're in love with her, Zuko."

“WHAT?! No, I'm-I'm not!” he exclaimed, his stomach dropping to his toes, panic bursting in him.

“Yes, you do!” she hissed. “It's been pretty obvious for months now, Zuko. Everyone knows it but Suki, and with all the rumors about the two of you floating around--"

“I don’t love her," he interjected, slashing his hand through the air as if that might stop the truth from escaping him.

“Yes, you do.”

“Even if I did it wouldn’t matter, would it?” he said with bitter reluctance and just a touch of paranoia. He’d been trying to hide his feelings for months, and he’d thought he’d mastered keeping them beneath the surface, but clearly he’d let too many things slip.

Ty Lee’s mouth slowly closed and a sad expression crossed her face. “Because she’s dating Sokka.”

Zuko swallowed and look at his feet. “Yeah. And she loves him.”

“Maybe.”

“Definitely,” he mumbled and glanced at Ty Lee. “Don’t say anything, please? I’m just being stupid. It's a crush. I'll get over it and she never has to know. NO ONE has to know.”

“I won’t. I promise. Trust me, I know what it’s like having feelings for someone who only thinks of you as a friend…and trying to hide it,” Ty Lee said bitterly and he saw a glint of sadness and longing in her gaze.

“Did you ever get over her?” he asked.

Ty Lee tossed him a sad smile that was almost an apology. She reached out and took his hand, squeezing gently. “Come on. You have a meeting and you’re going to be late.”

He nodded and they walked to the Council chamber with Ty Lee half a step behind him. He could feel her sad gaze on him. Every step felt like he was walking through thick mud. All he could think of was the scroll in Suki’s hands and what it might say.

Jealousy curdled his guts and sank in him like a stone, and no matter how much he told himself that he had no right to feel that way, the feeling persisted and worsened. He felt it pulling him down bit by bit…and he knew that he was in trouble.


	3. Chapter 3

Suki’s hands shook as she closed the door to her suite in the servant’s wing of the palace. She was staring at the scroll with its unbroken wax seal, a bit dazed, dry-mouthed and sweaty. It had been months since she’d last written him, and even longer since he’d written back. Her stomach churned as she crossed the room and sat down on the end of her bed, pushing her frizzy hair out of her sweaty face.

Taking a deep breath, she broke the blue wax seal with her fingernail and unrolled the parchment to find Sokka’s handwriting in all its familiar, sloppy glory.

_Dear Suki,_

_I know it’s been a while since I last wrote to you and I just want to apologize. I’ve been with my dad and gran at the Southern Water Tribe, helping rebuild. I should have written, but I’ve just been busy I guess. I’ll be coming to visit soon. I miss you. Tell Zuko I said hello, and make sure you watch his back. You know how much trouble he gets into._

_Sokka_

Suki reread the letter three times, frowning with each sentence. She hadn’t known what to expect, what she’d wanted him to say to her. He’d apologized for ignoring her letters, at the very least, but somehow his apology just left a sour taste in her mouth. His short letter left a few unanswered questions as well.

Why hadn’t he told her he was going to the South? Why had Katara told her that he was busy, instead of telling her the truth? Something didn’t add up and she didn’t like it one bit.

She chewed on her lower lip until it was raw and bloody, studying his scrawling hand for any more clues, but there were none to be found. Confusion rolled through her like a thunderstorm, jagged forks of doubt and sadness flashing in her like lightning.

She thought of their last meeting nearly a year ago. Things had been noticeably strained between them. She’d thought it was because of their clashing schedules. Zuko had only taken her and Ty Lee with him as guards to Republic City and she’d spent most of her time by the Fire Lord’s side. Sokka had been hard at work with the council and with the architects on Air Temple Island. Over the course of a week they’d seen each other three times and made love once. And even that had been strained, awkward and filled with pauses, as if he’d wanted to say something to her and couldn’t.

She’d thought it was just her imagination. Or that Sokka had just been too overworked. As the months went by, and her letters had gone unanswered, she’d begun to think otherwise. His letter just confirmed it.

Not for the first time, she felt the stirrings of anger in her and was surprised at how deeply the feeling went. She’d thought she wasn’t angry at Sokka at all anymore, instead believing that she’d come to terms with what was happening. Or rather, what wasn’t.

How wrong she’d been.

She rolled Sokka’s letter up again and pressed it to her forehead as she bowed over her lap, eyes squeezed tightly shut. She wanted to hit something while screaming. She wanted her heart to stop aching and she wanted clarity for her confused mind.

“What am I going to do?” she whispered, feeling trapped and trampled, stuck uncertainly on the brink of something huge and life-changing. But what did that even mean?

She lay back on her bed, curling in on herself, thinking of Sokka, wondering how things had gone so wrong, inventing a thousand scenarios of what he might have to say to her, and what she might say to him. Each one seemed more horrible than the next, and she had no idea what sort of outcome she wanted for her fantasy reunion. Or if she wanted one at all.

That thought caused an avalanche of guilt that only fed her misery. And in the midst of all, creeping into every thought like smoke through even the tiniest of cracks, was  _Zuko._

* * *

 

“Your food is getting cold,” Zuko said as he caught Suki staring with unfocused eyes across the sweeping vista of the Caldera. She started and looked at him guiltily, picking up a bite with her chopsticks. She chewed, sending him a small, guilty smile. “You’re a million miles away tonight. What’s up?”

Suki swallowed and wiped at her mouth with her napkin. “N-nothing. So how was your Council meeting?”

“Boring, as usual. Bai and Jiang were arguing about the number of lobsters the chef had ordered or something stupid like that,” he said, thinking of the way Bai’s face had gone red as he’d argued with the seneschal. The treasurer was a corpulent little man, given to apoplectic fits over the smallest of expenditures. He was always at odds with Zuko’s seneschal Jiang, who was brash, a bit crass and entirely too good at getting on Bai’s nerves. The two’s enmity made the Council meetings slightly less boring than they might usually have been, but discussions about a ball he wanted no part in were not high on his list of interesting ways to spend his time.

He’d spent most of the meeting obsessively replaying his dance lesson with Suki in his head, and then chastising himself for it. He also couldn’t stop thinking about the scroll in her hands, and what it might say.

After the meeting he’d had a few private appointments with various officials from all over the Fire Nation, reporting on the health and welfare of the Nation. He liked these meetings; they made him feel connected to his people and better able to serve their needs. After his meeting, Ty Lee had accompanied him to his suite where Fen, his private secretary, had gone over his schedule for the next day.

It had been a blessing when the food he’d ordered to his rooms had arrived. He’d dismissed Fen and asked his servants to move his table to the balcony. His rooms were still too stuffy and hot and he craved the breeze coming in from the sea. Only a few minutes after his servants had left him for the night, Suki had shown up at his door.

She’d looked radiant, standing there sheathed in a pale green, two piece-dress that was simple, but complimented her nonetheless. She’d forgone her Kyoshi paint, and her skin looked clean and glowing. She’d pulled half of her hair back with a jade comb that was as unadorned as her dress. She looked beautiful, almost delicate, despite the muscle of her flat stomach and the defined contours of her arms.

He knew better than to think of her as a wilting flower though; she could (and had) put him on the ground without an ounce of effort on her part. He also knew that she no doubt had several weapons hidden on her body, within easy reach. She was beautiful and deadly, but as his gaze had taken her in, he’d noticed the troubled expression in her eyes.

Ty Lee had left them then, with an annoying smile and a wink in his direction. No matter how hard he’d protested, the acrobat refused to believe his dinner with Suki wasn’t a date.

 _It’s just dinner between two friends. We have dinner all of the time._  Just because he’d ordered all of her favorite food and put on the robe he knew she liked him best in didn’t mean they were on a date. Besides, sitting in rooms with two Kyoshi warriors in the hallway within earshot was definitely not his idea of a date.

“You don’t even like lobster,” Suki said with a hint of her usual amusement, drawing him out of his thoughts.

“I don’t like having random women thrown at me either, and yet here we are,” he said resignedly, pushing his food around as he made a face.

“Poor Zuko,” Suki said, reaching out and taking the red noodles from his plate. He watched her take a delicate bite, chew and then swallow. “Did you have any more run-ins with any would-be brides today?”

“Blessedly, no. Though General Mak seems to think his niece and I would hit it off. His niece is _fourteen_ ,” he said exasperatedly, reaching over and plucking a mushroom off her plate. He said while he chewed, “I couldn’t get out of the meeting fast enough.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Suki said amusedly, picking up another pile of mushrooms and holding her chopsticks out to him. He took the bite and she laughed when a mushroom dripped slimily down his chin and then into his lap. “Smooth. The ladies won’t know what hit them.”

“They will if I have to dance with them,” he mumbled as he wiped the food from his lap.  He glanced up at her and noticed that her smile had faded again and she was staring out the window with a closed expression on her face.  “Suki?”

“Huh?” She looked back at him guiltily and then said, “Sorry. I’m a bit distracted tonight.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“A lot of things,” she said as she drained her glass of wine and then grabbed the chilled bottle from the table and poured herself another, which she drank down quickly. She moved to refill it again, but Zuko reached out a hand and placed it over the rim of her glass.

“Whatever’s wrong,  _that’s_  not going to help,” he said and she sighed a little bit.

“Maybe not, but I’m in the mood to do something stupid tonight,” she said, putting the bottle to her lips. Zuko placed her glass on the table and watched her drain the last of the summer red. She licked her lips and he followed the progress of her tongue with rapt attention.

“How stupid?” he asked, arching his eyebrow.

“Pretty damned,” she said, looking him up and down as she flushed and put the empty bottle onto the table. She reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him up and out of his seat. He went willingly as she tugged one of his hands to her waist and then folded her other hand up in his.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“Dance with me, Zuko,” she said, looking up at him, a soft light in her eyes.

“There’s uh…there’s no music,” he stammered, even as he pulled her a little closer.

“We don’t need any,” she said as she placed her head on his chest. They swayed in place, not truly dancing, but not standing still either. His heart raced hard in his chest, banging like a drum, so loud he was sure she’d hear it. Zuko closed his eyes, his cheek resting on her forehead. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For inviting me for dinner tonight. I’d probably be sulking in my rooms if you hadn’t. I don’t like sulking. So thank you,” she said as her fingers slid up the back of his neck and slowly caressed through his hair. He shuddered and tried to control his breathing, but every particle in his body was absolutely focused on the soft threading of her fingers. Goosebumps erupted through his skin in little waves.

“My pleasure. I like having you around, you know,” he admitted. “You’re the only person I can talk to these days. You’re…you’re really important to me, Suki.”

He winced, wondering if he’d said too much. Or maybe too little. He was torn between what he wanted to do and what he should do.

“You’re really important to me too, Zuko,” Suki said, leaning her head back. Their gazes connected again for one sizzling moment. Then her gaze slid to his mouth and back and she bit down on her lower lip, a red blush heating her cheeks. “I really…”

“Care about you,” they said together and she managed a small laugh as he blushed. Why was he so bad at this?

“More than I should,” she finished softly and he felt the earth fall away from his feet. “Which makes everything with Sokka a lot more complicated.”

The sound of his friend’s name was like a cold splash of water down his back. He let his arms drop to the side and he stepped away from her, swallowing the instinct to do the exact opposite at her admission.  “Uh. Right. Sokka. Because you’re dating Sokka. So…uh…  How is Sokka?”

“Umm.  Good, I  _guess_ ,” she said, more than a touch of bitterness in her voice as she leaned back against the railing. The setting sun made a blazing corona of her hair as she clutched her hands together. The moment between them—whatever that had been—was gone. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

“What’s he been up to?” he asked, even though he knew he was prying. His letters to Sokka had gone as unanswered as hers had, and he wondered exactly what had been keeping him so busy that he couldn’t write to his girlfriend. His anger hadn’t abated any for his acknowledgment of it, and his curiosity was getting the better of him.

He knew something in that letter had upset her though.

Suki’s gaze was far away again. “I don’t know. He, uh…said he’s been at the Southern Water Tribe all this time. He apologized for not writing, and just said he was busy. It was a really short letter.”

He noticed the way her jaw tightened and the edge in her voice. He moved up beside her and caught her gaze, hoping she could see the concern in his eyes. “That’s good that he apologized, right?”

“Is it?” she said cuttingly. “Then why don’t I feel any better?”

She abruptly turned her back to him, facing the railings. He watched the way her shoulders were shaking. She wasn’t crying, but she was definitely holding herself back.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as she stared at the sweeping view. The sunset threw red light over her face. She was chewing on the inside of her lip, a habit of hers that he knew well. 

Her brows knitted as the sultry air stirred the curtains, and sent a strand of her chin-length hair into her eyes. She brushed it away and then crossed her arms over her chest. He came up beside her, lifting his hand to touch her shoulder and then withdrawing as he thought better of it.

After a long moment, her eyes slowly tracing the rim of the Caldera, Suki asked him in a soft voice, “What’s it like to fall out of love?”

He swallowed, casting a glance at her, but she was still watching the sunset. Below them the lights in the Caldera City were coming on in tiny little flares. Everything was drenched with yellow and red. Suki’s perfume tickled his senses as he turned his back and leaned his hip on the balcony railing.

“It’s confusing and it hurts,” he said with a sigh, staring down at his feet. The breeze swept through his hair like reverent fingers, sending a shiver down his spine. “Why are you asking?”

Suki closed her eyes and lowered her head. She picked at her neat fingernails absently, still chewing on her lip. “I just want to know. What was it like when you and Mai broke up?”

Zuko let his gaze soften and unfocus as he cast his mind back to the months before Mai had walked out of his life for good. Those hadn’t been happy months and he tried not to dwell on them for a number of reasons. “I’m not sure what you want to know, Suki.”

“How did you get over her?”

Zuko glanced at Suki, but she was still studying her hands intently. He thought for a moment, trying to find the words. “I don’t really know. It wasn’t easy. I really never thought I would, but it feels like I woke up one day and just didn’t think about her or what happened. One day turned into two days. And then more and more until the pain was a memory. I still think about her sometimes, but not the way I used to and not as often. I guess I’m over her.”

“What about when you were still together? Before the breakup? Did you know that it was over before it was over?”

Zuko licked his lips, glancing at her again. There was a touch of sadness in her eyes and the downturn of her mouth was nothing but guilt-ridden. He stared at his feet again and shrugged. “I think I did, though maybe not consciously. We fought all of the time. We’d break up and get back together. Well, you know. You were there. When things were good between us, it was amazing. But the good times didn’t last. There was always something between us. Secrets. Little pauses, aggravations, snarky comments. A lot of that was my fault in the beginning, but after she left me when she found out I was talking to my father and we got back together a few months later, I vowed I wasn’t going to push her away again. But things were never quite right. I’d reach for her and she’d move away. We were constantly at arm’s length emotionally. The more I reached, the less she reached back until I realized she wasn’t just moving away from me, she was running.”

“Why?”

Zuko sighed and shook his head. “It took me a long time to figure it out, actually. You know how Mai was raised, right? She had to be perfect and quiet growing up. She couldn’t draw any attention to herself. She lived in a fish bowl. When she traveled with Azula during the war, I think she finally got a taste of what it was like to be free. To be herself without eyes on her, judging her, demanding she be something she wasn’t. Then we started dating. And I was the Fire Lord. Every eye in the world, not just the Fire Nation, was on me…and Mai by extension. She was right back where she’d started, and I think living at the palace with me brought it all back home. She resented the loss of her freedom. Every time we kissed it set off a rumor, and she was followed everywhere she went by people interested in talking to the Fire Lord’s girlfriend. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think she started to see our future as a cage. And she fought it...and me.”

“Zuko…” Suki reached out and touched his shoulder and his lifted his hand, covering her fingers with his own as he shrugged again.

“I can’t blame her. She was right. My life is lived every day in front of the world. Every action or inaction is whispered about, decried and discussed endlessly. My every minute of the day is scheduled. They’re even trying to pick who I marry. I can’t blame Mai for walking away. I want to run sometimes too. I think she stayed for as long as she did because she really  _did_  love me. But it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough to make her happy, in the end. Letting her go was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I knew I couldn’t keep her. We just weren’t meant to be, and I realize that now.”

“I’m sorry,” she said as she turned her hand and linked their fingers. She leaned against him and pressed her head to his shoulder as she stared behind him at the dying sunlight. Silence stretched between them as his thumb caressed the back of her hand in small circles. Finally, she spoke, her voice soft and thick. “What if Sokka and I aren’t meant to be?”

His pulse jumped and he felt slightly dizzy, disoriented. He struggled to find the proper words, knowing what he  _wanted_  to say, in his heart of hearts and what he  _should_  say. “I don’t know. Do you still love him?”

Her voice was tremulous. “That’s the problem. I don’t know anymore. A year ago I wouldn’t have hesitated to say yes, but now… Now I’m  _angry_  at him. He ignored me, and he had Katara cover for him, but why? I feel so humiliated. I really just want to punch him. I thought I wasn’t bothered, but really I was just making excuses for him. I’m starting to wonder why I’m still with him…when we haven’t ever really been _together_.”

He half-turned to face her and she tilted her head back, staring into his eyes. Tears were slowly spilling from her eyes. He reached out and wiped them away with his thumbs as she clutched at his wrists. Her expression was raw, eyes red with the floodgate she was holding back. Her lower lip trembled.

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve always lived different lives. He’s there, I’m here. We only see each other for a few days every few months. That’s not a  _relationship._  That’s…two people having sex when it’s convenient and writing letters in between. It’s… It’s not enough anymore! I…I still care about him, I do. But…I want  _more_. Is that so wrong?”

Zuko lowered his arms as she let go of him and turned away. She sniffed back tears and stared at the last blush of sun on the horizon. The stars were coming out, sparkling like diamonds in the hazy purple sky. She put her hand over her mouth, her gaze far away, as Zuko stood there, unsure what to do, what to say.

He hesitated, and then said, “Don’t hit me for saying this, but Sokka’s my friend. As angry at him as I’ve been for the way he’s treated you, and trust me I’d like to punch his head off of his shoulders, I still find it very hard to believe that he’d hurt you like this on purpose. This is really unlike him and I don’t know what’s up, but the two of you need to talk this out. You need to say these things to  _him.”_

“I know,” she said miserably and then turned and buried her face against his chest again. He wrapped his arms around her automatically and they sank against one another. He rested his chin in her hair, breathing in her scent. “I’m just really confused, Zuko. I wanted him to write to me or visit or something for so long and now that he has… I don’t want to feel like this.”

He smoothed his hands down her back in an attempt to soothe her, but if it had the opposite effect on him. He shouldn’t be holding her like this. It wasn’t right. He tightened his arms and she sniffed into his robes.

“The only thing I can tell you is to listen to your heart,” he whispered into her ear.

“That’s not very good advice,” she said, leaning back. Her blue eyes shone in the light of the candles on the table.

“Why not?”

“Because my heart wants a lot of things right now. Things I shouldn’t want,” she said, searching his face as he felt that tug in his middle again, tingles spreading all through his body. “Things I shouldn’t have.”

“I know the feeling,” he said, unable to stop the words from leaving him. He was dry-mouthed, his heart drumming hard in his chest. The words he’d been wanting to say to her but had been choking back for so long teetered on the tip of his tongue. He reached out a hand, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Suki caught his hand, tangling their fingers again, pulling him toward her. His eyes were glued to her pink lips. He wanted nothing more than to indulge himself, to kiss her until he couldn’t breathe. Suki’s wet eyes were soft, seductive. He leaned in and her breath whispered against his lips for one sensual moment.

Then Suki gasped, shoving him in the chest so hard that he went sprawling back against the rough stone wall. He stopped himself from falling to the balcony floor and looked up through his hair just in time to see a figure dressed in black leap over the balcony railing. A sword glinted in his hand, catching the candlelight for one long moment before the intruder attacked.


	4. Chapter 4

Suki’s eyes narrowed as everything seemed to slow down. Her racing heart, the exhale of her breath, the arc of the black-clad intruder’s blade, the sound of Zuko’s shouted warning; all of it faded away as her reflexes took hold.

Her arm lifted, elbow jabbing forward beneath the assassin’s arm. She rammed it into the inside of his upper arm, knocking the blade aside. She followed through with a forward jab of the heel of her palm. The blow took him in the chin, snapping his head back.

The assassin stumbled back against the railings as Suki dropped into a fighting stance, reaching into a slit in her skirt and whipping out the fan she’d holstered there. The assassin, the sword still in his hand, recovered quickly. A pair of eyes an indeterminate brown narrowed on her as he pushed away from the railing.

“DEATH TO THE USURPER!” he hissed through the dark cloth across his mouth and went for her.

A smile spilled onto her lips. “You want him? You gotta go through me first.”

“That was the plan, bitch,” the assassin snarled and then went for her again.

Suki flowed into a spin, the fan becoming a part of her arm. She swung at the assassin as he moved the line, avoiding the slice that would have opened his throat. She swung again, keeping herself between him and Zuko. 

Zuko, however, had different ideas.

A jet of flame came roaring in the assassin’s direction as he made to slice at her arm. He avoided the orange blossom of heat and turned on Zuko with narrowed eyes.  Zuko’s hands glowed with flame, a look of rage on his handsome face.

“Get away from her.”

“Zuko, no!” Suki started, but the assassin, was moving again, jabbing the sword back at her in a complicated pattern. She moved to avoid it, dancing back in the direction of the dinner table. She closed the fan, moved in beneath his arm as he thrust at her, and caught his wrist in her hand.

He lifted his other hand to hit her, but she caught it too. Then, before he could react, she threw herself backward into the table in a controlled tumble.

As her back hit the table, upturning it in a dizzying rush, her foot lifted into the assassin’s gut. He grunted as she levered him over her head and let go of his wrists. He hit the opposite wall of the palace as the table upended. She rolled to the side, bruising her knee as she hit the hard stones. She came up in a crouch, the fan still tucked into her palm.

She opened it as the assassin moaned, dazed, reaching instinctually for his lost sword.

“Zuko, get the others,” she said through her teeth as the assassin’s fingers closed over the pommel of his plain, leather-wrapped sword.

“I’m not leaving you,” he said just at her elbow.

“Go!” she said, sparing him another glance over her shoulder. Fire bathed his scarred features in flickering oranges and reds. He looked enraged and, oddly, scared.

“No!”

“By all means, stay. You can watch while I disembowel her. Or maybe I’ll slice that pretty little face open?” the assassin said, having gained his feet smoothly.

Zuko gave a cry of anger and surged forward, flames erupting from his hands. He sent a volley at the assassin, who sidestepped it, palming an object from his belt at the same moment. Suki saw the movement and dived at Zuko. She knocked him into the debris of the table and they skidded across their spilled food and broken glasses just as a wicked stiletto sailed through the air in the place Zuko had been only seconds before.

Suki rolled again, whipping her fan open just in time to catch the blade of the assassin’s sword as he attempted to stab her. He wrenched the sword sideways, taking her fan with it. She didn’t care; her hand had already found one of the silver serving knives that had spilled from the table.

She brought it down into the middle of his foot with a crunch of bone and a burst of blood. He gave a cry, dancing backward as she and Zuko rolled to their feet. The knife protruded from his foot, bobbing as blood trailed across the balcony. He swooped and wrenched it out with a grunt of pain.

Blood trickled down his gloved fingers. Hatred burned in his eyes.

“You’re going to pay for that.”

Suki moved in, weaponless. She threw a kick that he avoided, the sword swinging in an arch that connected. Pain burst in her arm and she felt blood oozing from the wound. She ignored it, bringing her knee up into his stomach. Her fist followed, smashing into his face.

They grappled, tossing punches and kicks. A blow took her in the stomach. She saw Zuko out the corner of her eye and knew that he wanted to attack, but she was in the way. He didn’t want to hurt her. Why didn’t he run?

The assassin caught her in the shoulder with the serving knife and the pain only served to anger her. Whoever he was, he was good. She executed a roundhouse kick that knocked the sword out of hand. It clattered over the railing and into the open air. He only had the serving knife now.

Her lip curled as she moved in for the kill. She caught him by the collar and brought him back for another punch that shattered his nose.

The assassin laughed and head-butted Suki just as she realized that she had moved in too close. The pain was blinding. He grabbed her hair and tugged her forward, ripping from the roots. She struggled, jabbed her arms forward to break his hold, but he spun her, her feet slipping in mushed red noodles. He hauled her around and put the serving knife to her throat.

“Suki!”

“ _Ah-ah-ah_ ,” the assassin said against Suki’s neck. The knife’s edge was nipping at her throat. Hot pain burst in her as the assassin’s hands tugged at her head, tilting it back to expose her throat even more. The blade cut into her the tiniest bit and blood trickled down her neck. “One step closer and I’ll kill her.”

Zuko stood before them, fire in his eyes, food smeared on his clothing. He was pale in the light of the fire flickering on his hands. “What do you want?”

“For her? Nothing but your death, Fire Lord. I’ll exchange you for her.”

“NO! ZUKO RUN!”

“Shush, pretty girl,” he crooned in her ear as she dug her fingers into the arm holding the knife to her throat. “The big boys are talking.”

“Fuck you,” she said through her teeth, making him chuckle darkly. The sound sent shivers of fear creeping over her.

“I’ll leave that to our dear Fire Lord, thank you. You two looked so cozy,” he said and then turned his attention back on Zuko, who had crept a step closer. His gaze hit hers and stayed there as she pled with him silently.

 _Run, Zuko. Run. Save yourself_ , she thought desperately. Two of her warriors were stationed outside of Zuko’s suite. They must not have heard anything or they would have come running.  _Damn. Why did we have to eat out on the balcony? How did I let him get the better of me?_

Zuko’s face was hard with resolve and fear. “I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t hurt her.”

“That’s what I like to hear, Usurper,” the assassin said, the knife edge digging into her throat again. She pled with Zuko, but she knew he wouldn’t run. He wouldn’t leave her. “You really want to save her?”

“Yes!”

“Then throw yourself over the railing.”

“ZUKO DON’T!”

“Shhhh…” he said, jerking her back against him. “Come on, Zuko. You want to save her, you just walk right over to that railing and throw yourself over the edge. Kill yourself.”

“And what will that accomplish? You’ll kill her the minute I jump.”

“On my honor, I’ll let her go,” he said in Suki’s ear. His breath wheezed noisily in and out of his broken nose.

“You don’t have any honor,” Zuko said bitingly.

"Definitely not. I was ordered to kill you, Usurper...and her too, if I could. But I don't have to kill her. I'm sure if you give your life for hers, I could find it in my black little heart to be merciful," the assassin hissed. Suki was too busy staring at Zuko to fully grasp the meaning of his words.

Zuko stared at her for a long moment. The flames died on his hands as he dropped them. His gaze flicked to the balcony and back to Suki. She knew exactly what he was thinking; she knew him too well not to.

“Zuko…don’t do this…” she moaned as the knife bit sharply into her throat again.

“I have to, Suki. I can’t let him hurt you,” Zuko said walking toward the railing. He put his hands on the balustrade and hauled himself up. He stood above them on the railing and glanced over at Suki.

He nodded at her solemnly and then jumped.

At the same moment, Suki slammed her head back into the assassin’s face, right into his broken nose. She caught the hand holding the knife, pushing it away from her as she half-turned and jammed her elbow back into his face. He reeled backward as she turned and brought the heel of her bare foot down into the bloody stab wound in his foot.

He yowled and backhanded her, just as a burst of flame came out of nowhere. It engulfed his head and caught on the black mask over his face. Suki’s swimming gaze flicked to the railings as she skidded in the remains of their dinner and dropped to her knees. Her hands desperately scrambled for her broken fan in the mess. She saw Zuko pull himself up the railing with a burst of fire from his feet.

The assassin pulled the burning mask from his face with a wrench, revealing a plain face, with a wide mouth, dark hair shaved to stubble, and a curious black tattoo on his neck in the shape of a flame.

He snarled and screamed something unintelligible, going for Zuko. The knife flashed as Zuko tried to pull himself up.

Zuko cried out with pain as the knife scored his hand. Suki ran at the assassin, her fan flashing as she swiped at his eyes. Blood blinded him as he screamed, turning on her and stabbing wildly with the knife. The blade punctured her shoulder, but she ignored the shock of pain. Instead she short-punched him in the face, smearing her split knuckles with his blood.

Then she grabbed him by the collar again and tumbled him backward, away from Zuko, whose hold on the railing was slipping, blood pouring from his hand.

The assassin hit the sliding rice paper balcony doors, shattering the frame with a crash. Suki turned back to Zuko and reached for him just as the she heard a cry of alarm from inside Zuko’s suite. She recognized Aiko and Rin’s voices as they raced into the room.

“Give me your hand!” Suki gasped as she reached for Zuko. He lifted his bloody hand and she grasped it, pulling him with all of her might. Pain exploded in her shoulder and her left hand went limp. Zuko slipped in her grasp, but she held on tightly. “No!”

Zuko looked up at her, his eyes wild with fear. “Suki…”

“You’re too slippery…”

“Fire Lord Zuko!” Rin called with a gasp. “Captain…what…”

“The assassin! GRAB HIM!” Suki gasped as she grit her teeth and hauled Zuko up inch by inch. His feet flailed, looking for purchase on the lip of the balcony.

There was a commotion behind her, an angry scream of rage and footsteps running toward them. The scream garbled out into a bloody choke as the assassin ran headlong into the railings and flung himself over. Suki gasped, watching his body tumble into the darkness and disappear. Her shocked gaze flicked to Zuko as Aiko and Rin appeared at her side.

Together the three of them pulled Zuko back over the railing. He stumbled coming over the railing and landed on Suki. She gasped in pain; the knife was still in her shoulder and blood was drenching her arm and breasts. Zuko looked at her shoulder and then sat up on his knees.

He stared at the knife for a long, horrified moment and then locked down the expression.

“Rin, get the healer! Aiko, get Jiang. Rouse the guards and search for his body. Lock down the palace and the grounds. GO!” Zuko barked, though he only had eyes for her as he gently pulled her up into a sitting position against his shoulder. Suki gasped; the pain seemed to be increasing with every heartbeat. Her left hand was limp and flexing her fingers brought on a twinge of pain that was blinding.

Aiko ran through the broken balcony doors, with Rin on her heels, leaving them alone. Suki took a shuddering breath between her teeth, a clammy sweat breaking out over her skin. Zuko’s arms tightened around her and then loosened as he sank back against the railings. He stretched out his legs and slid her onto his lap. He cradled her against his shoulder, trying to make her comfortable.

“Are you okay?” she asked and he laughed as he smoothed her hair back from her face with a bloody hand.

“You’re the one with a knife in your shoulder.”

“I’ll live. Are you okay?” she insisted.

“I’ll live,” he said softly, his head lowering against hers. He breathed in slowly as she put her uninjured arm around his shoulder. He lifted his hand, hovering over the hilt of the knife. “Should I take it out?”

“No! Leave it. The healer can handle that,” she said tightly, catching his hand and folding his bloody fingers around hers. “You should have run. You should have gotten out of there.”

“We can fight about that later,” he said, shaking his head. “I thought he was going to kill you.”

“He was. You distracted him long enough for me to break free. For a second there I thought you really were going to jump.”

“I was.”

“Dammit, Zuko…”

“I couldn’t let him hurt you!”

“And I couldn’t let him hurt  _you!_  That’s my job! Don’t you  _ever_  try and put yourself in danger just to save me again!” she said, burying her face against his neck. His hair had come loose in the fight and it flowed around their faces. The scent of him, of blood, and spilled food and fear and sweat swelled over her.

“I’m not helpless, you know! I can fight!” he said hotly into her hair.

“I know that!” she hissed, wincing in pain as she pulled back. “But it’s my job to make sure you don’t have to! Why didn’t you run? Don’t you  _ever_  do that to me again, you stubborn asshole!”

Zuko reached out and cupped her chin. He stared into her eyes, and she found she couldn’t look away. “Don’t you ever try and die for me again. I couldn’t handle it if… If something happened to you… I… Suki, it would kill me.”

“Zuko…” she whispered as his forehead pressed to hers. She took a deep breath, surprised at the tears that were forming, threatening to break free. All of the turmoil of her life seemed suddenly far away. Sokka seemed very far away. She clung to Zuko, her fingers stroking the back of his neck as he shivered against her. “I…”

“I love you,” Zuko whispered, and then he kissed her.

Everything was heat and flame; little thrills rolled hotly through her body in scorching rivulets, setting her nerve endings on fire. Her hand sank into his hair. The pain in her shoulder was forgotten. Zuko’s mouth molded over hers, hesitant at first, but gaining confidence when she didn’t push him away.

His lips were dry against hers, pressing deeply as she tilted her chin upwards. He caught her lower lip between his, tugging with the slightest of pressures, sending more jolts of fire throughout her bruised body.

He released her lip for a moment, his nose brushing hers. He breathed shallowly, shaking in her arms. Then she pulled him toward her again, pressing as hard as she dared.

Zuko made a sound in the back of his throat, his arm tightening around her as their mouths moved slowly against one another. He tasted like wine and she wanted to drown in him…

“Sire! Sire, are you alright?” Jiang, Zuko’s seneschal called from Zuko’s suite. Too late, Suki and Zuko broke apart, only to find Jiang, four of his guards and Aiko staring at them. Suki took in a sharp breath as Zuko cursed softly. Jiang’s eyebrow lifted, one corner of his mouth quirking up as he surveyed the scene. “Are we interrupting something?”

Zuko ignored the pointed comment and said in what Suki knew to be an authoritative voice, though she could hear the quaver in it where Jiang might not have, “An assassin attacked us. He came over the balcony railings. I want the palace and the grounds locked down. No one gets in or out. I want the servants questioned.”

“The servants?” Jiang asked, confusion skirting across his face. “Why?”

“The assassin somehow managed to climb the entire face of the palace at sunset and no one happened to see him? There’s no way,” Suki said, with pain in her voice. Zuko glanced at her, a high flush in his cheeks.

Jiang nodded in sudden understanding. “You think he was hiding in one of the lower floors.”

“Probably one with a balcony below mine.”

“The closest one is four floors down,” Suki gasped as she moved her arm. Zuko pulled her against his chest. “That’s a guest room for visiting heads of state.”

“Which the servants have been cleaning in preparation of the ball,” Jiang said and glanced at the guardsmen. “Understood, Fire Lord Zuko. I’ll have my men seal the grounds and question the servants and guardsmen.”

“Fine. Report to me when you’re finished,” Zuko said. Jiang and his men bowed to them and then turned smartly on their heels and left, but not before one or two of them glanced back at them knowingly. They left the room just as Rin came tearing into the suite, followed by Zuko’s healer, who was carrying a black bag with her. The willowy old woman stopped dead in her tracks and assessed the damage with a gimlet-eyed glare. She dropped to one knee beside them and pursed her lips.

“She’s worse off than you, Fire Lord,” Nam-Kyu said shortly and tossed her frizzy iron-gray hair out of her face. “We need to move her to someplace comfortable. A balcony is no place to stitch someone up.”

Zuko’s breath caressed her ear. “Will moving you hurt too much?”

“I can’t see how it can hurt any worse. I can walk,” Suki said as Zuko slowly extracted himself from beneath her. He crouched beside her, putting one hand beneath her undamaged arm, the other on her waist. Agonizingly slowly, he helped her to her feet.

A wave of dizziness struck her and she wavered a little, feeling queasy as the world lurched around her. Zuko caught her and before she could do much more than blink, he’d scooped her up in his arms. Pain blasted through her shoulder, but he held her gently. Together he, the two Kyoshi warriors and the healer walked into his suite.

“Not on your bed. I’ll get blood everywhere,” she protested as Zuko gently set her down on the massive bed.

“I don’t care. That knife has to come out now,” Zuko said, smoothing her hair back. She was dimly aware of how sweaty she was. She felt like she was going to throw up. Nam-Kyu shouldered Zuko out of the way, popping her bag down on the bureau and opening it. She pulled out a fine, hooked needle, black twine, several pots containing mysterious ointments and a small paper package of white powder.

“You’re not going to like this, dearie,” the healer said, and then grasped the knife and wrenched it out of her shoulder. Suki gasped, stomach tightening as her knees drew up. Her eyes squeezed shut through the pain and she bit down on her lips to keep from crying out. “Good girl. Now let’s see the damage.”

The healer bent to examine her and she watched the old woman’s keen gaze as she assessed the wound.

“How bad is it? Is there nerve damage?” she asked in an undertone, glancing at Zuko, who was watching with an odd expression on his face. Her heart thumped hard as the old woman swabbed at the bloody wound. She was bleeding out at a steady pace and she still felt like she might throw up her dinner at any moment.

“Hmmm…the blade went deep, but it’s a clean cut,” Nam-Kyu mumbled and then pinched Suki’s left wrist. She winced and jerked away, making a fist. The healer smirked. “Seems fine to me, but we’ll have to see once you’ve healed up a bit. Now, brace yourself. This might sting.”

The old woman dusted the wound with the white powder and immediately a sharp stinging sensation jittered through her shoulder. She hitched in a breath as Zuko came around the other side of the bed and took hold of her hand. The healer glanced at Zuko, but didn’t comment as she placed a wad of cotton over the wound, then turned back to the needle and thread.

“Are you okay?” Zuko asked, sitting on the bed. He was cradling his injured hand in his lap, but he seemed to be ignoring it.

“I’m fine,” she said again to Zuko, forcing a smile onto her lips. She glanced at the two women hovering at the foot of the bed. “Aiko, Rin? Take the other Kyoshi warriors and sweep the grounds. Collect the assassin’s body, if Jiang’s men haven’t done it yet. Take it to the dungeon. I’ll want to search the body later and see where he came from.”

“Are you going to be okay, Captain Suki?” Rin asked as Aiko hesitated.

“I’m fine,” she said again, even though the pain was making it hard to breathe. Aiko glanced from Suki to Zuko and back again, her red lips tightening to a thin line.

“Fire Lord Zuko…we didn’t hear anything in the hallway. I swear it. If we’d known you were being attacked…” Aiko started, but Zuko cut her off, lifting his bleeding hand.

“It’s not your fault. Neither of us shouted for help. The fault is with me and the thick walls of the palace. My ancestors were great builders,” he said with some amusement. Rin visibly relaxed, but Aiko, whom Suki knew to be as serious as Zuko when it came to her duties, had a dignified look on her face that told Suki she’d have to have a talk with her at some point in the future.

“You’re dismissed,” Suki said and the two Kyoshi Warriors turned smartly on their heels and left. She, Zuko and the healer sank into an uncomfortable silence as the old woman hummed under her breath and stitched up Suki’s shoulder with a practiced hand. She rubbed ointment from one of the jars on the wound and then glanced at Zuko knowingly.

Zuko turned his back on them as the old woman pulled Suki’s blood-soaked top down and wrapped the bandage around her shoulder and back. With the knife out, the pain had lessened somewhat, but she still felt dizzy and nauseated. Nam-Kyu pulled her ruined top back into place and then stood back with an assessing eye.

“Well, you’re going to live, I’d wager. You’ve got some knicks and cuts that’ll need more patching up in a moment or two and that slice on your other arm needs stitches. That can wait a moment though. I’ll need to see Zuko’s hand first.”

“No,” Zuko said, getting to his feet. “Suki first. I insist.”

“You may be the Fire Lord, but as your healer you don’t outrank me,” Nam-Kyu snapped. “You’re bleeding like a stuck pig-deer. Now sit down before I slap some sense into you.”

“Please, Zuko…” Suki said and it was her voice that made him dutifully sit on the end of the bed while the old woman examined his bloody hand. Suki saw for the first time that the wound went straight up the back of his hand in a ragged line.

“Well, that’s a nasty thing, but it should heal with some coddling,” the old woman said as she cleaned the wound. “You’ll scar. I reckon you both will.”

“Same knife, too.”

“And to think we were cutting our meat with it only minutes before,” Suki said wryly, catching Zuko’s eye as the healer stitched him up. He smiled a little, and didn’t look away the whole time Nam-Kyu was stitching him up. By the time she was finished, Jiang had appeared in the doorway, watching respectfully while his ruler was being doctored.

The healer finally released him after bandaging his hand and wrist, and then turned back to Suki. At Jiang’s motion, Zuko got up and went to whisper to him in the corner, sending glances Suki’s way every few seconds.

“Can’t keep his eyes off of you,” Nam-Kyu grunted as she stitched up the slice on Suki’s arm. “You know, lovers make for poor bodyguards.”

Suki’s face went red as she pressed her lips together. Her mind ran back over the kiss—had it really happened?—and she heard Zuko’s whispered words in her ears, ringing like bells. She didn’t know what to think; everything was a blur of pain and adrenaline. “I don’t know what you mean. We’re not…”

“Perhaps not yet, but if that one has his way about it, you will be,” Nam-Kyu mumbled, and then smiled at her, the corners of her gimlet eyes crinkling into a thousand fine lines. “I haven't forgotten how he lost his mind over you when you had the Fire Flu. He was convinced you were dying. Heart was on his sleeve. And I’ve heard the talk.”

“Talk? What talk?”

“About the Fire Lord and the Captain of his bodyguards. I’m not one for gossip though, so you didn’t hear that from me.” Nam-Kyu winked at her, and then finished bandaging the slice on her arm. She cleaned the bloody wounds on her neck, and pulled glass out Suki’s knee, bandaged several small cuts and then wiped her hands on a damp towel and stood. Suki was watching Zuko in the corner with Jiang as they talked in heated tones. “Come see me tomorrow and we’ll see how you’re getting along.”

Suki nodded at the healer as she sat up. Zuko saw her attempting to get out of the bed and hurried over. “Whoa, don’t try and get up yet. You lost a lot of blood.”

He pushed her back down and sat beside her as Nam-Kyu packed up her bag, nodded at him and left.

“I’m fine,” she repeated for what felt like the millionth time. “I have to examine the body.”

“That can wait until morning,” Zuko said, taking her hand. His face was grim as he glanced at Jiang standing respectfully at attention in the corner. “You need to get some rest.”

“So do you.”

“I don’t have the luxury. I’ve called an emergency council session and Jiang and I will be interviewing the servants and the guards who were working today. “

“I can help—“

“No, I want you to stay here and that’s an order,” he said gently but firmly. Suki started to argue and then nodded.

“Fine. But I don’t like it. You need guards. What if there’s a second attempt?”

“I know you don’t like it, and don’t worry about the guards. Kikki and Tam are just outside the door. So is Ty Lee. I’m leaving her here to guard you.”

“I don’t need guarding!”

“He said he'd been order to kill you too, not just me!"

"He was just trying to anger you! Why would an assassin go after me?" Suki said, brow furrowing.

"I don't know, but until we figure that out, I need to make sure you're safe."

“I should go to my own room…”

“We don’t know if your room is safe yet,” Zuko said, his mouth tightening. “Just stay here. I’ll be back in a few hours. Hopefully with some answers.” He started to get up, but she grabbed his hand.

“Zuko…”

He sank back down onto the bed and searched her face. The kiss sat between them, unspoken, his words echoing through the both of them. His hand folded around hers as he lifted it to his lips. He kissed her knuckles gently and then lowered his head. He let out a deep breath. “We’ll talk later, okay? Just…stay safe.”

“You too.”

He kissed her hand again and then laid it gently on the covers. And without another look backward, he marched out of the room, with Jiang two steps behind him. Suki let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. With Zuko gone, it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.

Ty Lee ducked inside the door a moment later and rushed over to her side. The acrobat looked like someone had roused her from sleep. She wasn’t wearing her uniform or makeup, and her hair was down, falling in long brown waves across her shoulders. She was wearing a skimpy red nightdress, with a short pink kimono belted over it. There was a sword in her hands though and a fan tucked into her robe belt. Her large hazel eyes took in the blood and the bandages, then flicked to the broken balcony doors and the scene of carnage beyond it.

She whistled impressively, and then shook her head. “That must have been one of hell of a date.”

er head. “That must have been one of hell of a date.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Sorry about this. You look like you were on your way to sleep,” Suki said, gesturing to Ty Lee’s nightgown. Ty Lee looked down at herself and then shrugged.

“S’okay, I wasn’t planning on sleeping much, if you know what I mean,” she said with an impish grin.

“The dancer?”

“No, we broke up. It’s one of Counselor Biyu’s daughters. Let’s just say that that’s one girl Zuko doesn’t have to worry about marrying,” Ty Lee said with a wink. Suki groaned as she sank back against the pillows.

“Sorry to interrupt your date then.”

“She’ll understand. Sorry  _your_  date was interrupted.”

“It wasn’t a date. Zuko and I were just having dinner. We do that sometimes. As friends.”

“I know you do. We all know it. Everyone in the palace knows it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Suki demanded.

“You know what it means,” Ty Lee said, sitting down on the end of the bed, her large hazel eyes sparkling with mischief. “So what happened?”

“Nothing! Well, I mean…we were attacked,” Suki said quickly, propping herself up on the pillows. The blood on her dress was starting to dry, and the smell was making her nauseated. The pain in her shoulder was ebbing a bit, helped out by whatever Zuko’s healer had done. “But nothing else.”

“Yeah, okay,” Ty Lee said skeptically, eyebrow rising. “That’s not what Aiko told me.”

“What did Aiko say?” she asked, knowing the answer full well. Her face flamed as Ty Lee smirked at her.

“Oh nothing, just that when she and Jiang and the soldiers walked in you and Zuzu were totally making out,” the acrobat said gleefully, leaning forward. “What’s uh…what’s up with that?”

“Nothing.” At Ty Lee’s look, Suki sighed and buried her face in her hands. “Okay. We kissed. It just sort of…you know,  _happened._  I was hurt and Zuko nearly died and there was a dead assassin and I was upset about Sokka and…and…”

“Why were you upset about Sokka? I thought you were dying to hear from him.”

Suki groaned and sank back against the pillows again. “I was. But… I don’t want to talk about it. All I want is to clean up, change my clothes and then to examine the assassin for clues. Help me up.”

“Zuko told you to stay put.”

“He’ll understand. I have duties to attend to. I can’t lie around just because I’m injured,” she said, as Ty Lee reluctantly came around the bed and helped her out of it.

“Right. Duties. Or maybe you just don’t want to be here when he gets back?” Suki shot Ty Lee a narrowed glare, causing the woman to back up a step and raise her hands. “Yeah, okay, shutting up now. Come on, Captain. Let’s go see a man about a corpse.”

* * *

 

“Sire, every floor has been thoroughly searched and the servants questioned. No one has breached our security since the lockdown last night,” Jiang said, nodding curtly at Zuko as he looked up from the missive he was writing, an inky brush poised in his fingers.

“Thank you, Jiang. I want the palace and Caldera City lockdown continued. No one in or out until we know where this assassin came from and who he’s working for.”

“Yes, sire,” Jiang said with a bow as the other councilors stirred restlessly. There were signs of fatigue and stress on all of their faces. It had been a long night. None of them had gotten any sleep. Zuko himself had questioned the servants who worked on the floor with a balcony below his. None of them seemed to know how an assassin had gotten into the room, but, as one servant had pointed out, the security on that floor was nonexistent when the rooms were unoccupied. Anyone could have slipped in, with the servants or guards totally unaware of it.

Frustration and exhaustion crawled over Zuko. All he wanted was some tea and a nap. And he wanted to check on Suki, most of all. At least she was getting a good night’s rest. The thought of her sleeping his bed comforted him. He wanted her safe and out of harm’s way.

She’d been harmed enough on his account last night.

Swallowing, Zuko bent back over his missive, wrote his name with haste and passed it to his secretary, Fen, who dusted it with sand and then rolled it up. His order would be delivered to the Mayor of the Capitol, advising him of the situation in the Caldera.

“General Mak, has there been any intelligence about an assassins lately? I thought we’d routed the New Ozai Society and imprisoned or executed the ringleaders,” he asked of the General, who came strolling into the room, looking alert, despite his lack of sleep.

“We did, though we’ve always believed that someone must have gotten away. There have been rumors, all unsubstantiated, of a cell still active in the Earth Kingdom...and lately there have been... Incidents,” General Mak said, dropping down into a seat. “I’ve had my men on it for some time now, but they’ve been bedeviled at every turn. We call them the Smoke Demons.”

“What kind of incidents?”

General Mak took a drink of tea from the cup by hand and then said, “The Smoke Demons are thought to be responsible for several fires and explosions in cities and towns throughout the Fire Nation for the past ten months, including that mine fire and collapse on Black Rock Island. At first we thought the incidents were random, totally unrelated. There were reports of a fire mad bender on the loose, so we thought they were just random attacks. However, I've begun to suspect that at least some of the incidents were deliberate targeting of the Fire Nation army's weapons depots. Too many of them have been set on fire or robbed to be random."

“Why wasn’t I informed of any of this?”

“Because we have no definitive proof that anyone is behind the sabotage or the deaths; several of the warehouses were full of volatile chemicals and explosives. At first it was thought that they might have ignited on their own. After the third warehouse went up, we started connecting the dots and looking for signs of sabotage and the people responsible. The closest we’ve come to catching anyone was a month ago. The whole village of Rinchaka Falls went up in flames. A lot of people died. Most of them children. There was an orphanage close to the warehouse…”

“I remember that. I sent aid to the survivors and funds to help rebuild,” Zuko said gravely. “And you think these Smoke Demons are responsible?”

The General shrugged. “We have no proof. One of my lieutenants and his men chased two people through the woods outside of Rinchaka Falls, but were unable to capture them. They scoured the island and came up empty-handed.”

“Do you think these Smoke Demons sent this assassin after me?”

General Mak shook his head, a look of uncertainty on his face. “They’ve stuck to mostly low-level terrorism so far. They seem disorganized, for all that they’re good at disappearing, which is why I hadn’t briefed you on the situation yet. I wanted actual proof of their existence. I hadn’t thought they were a credible threat to you.”

“Well, be that as it may, _someone_ wants me dead and he was able to get into this palace unseen. General, regardless of this assassin’s affiliations, I want these Smoke Demons found and routed. I can’t have them out there causing disasters like Rinchaka Falls again. And next time, I want briefed on the situation in full. I don’t like surprises, no matter if you have proof or not.”

“Yes, sire.”

Dropping his brush, Zuko rubbed at his eyes and sat back against his chair, head drooping. “Is that all, Jiang?”

“For now, sire. Perhaps it would be prudent for the Council to take their rest now? The palace has been searched and we’ve added guards to every floor and entrance. We’ve even sent up carpenters to fix your broken door and we’ve posted more guards outside of your suite. It is safe for you to rest, sire.”

“Carpenters? You didn’t disturb Suki, did you? She was injured. She needed her rest,” he said, his head shooting up. He caught Fen’s pointed glance at the rest of the Council.

“Your safety is paramount, sire. Besides, the Captain was not in your room when I took the carpenters up there,” Fen said softly.

“Well, where was she?”

“I do not know, sire,” Fen replied, glancing again down the table at the other Councilors.

“Perhaps she went to her own bed. Where she belongs,” Jiang said carefully. Zuko had a sudden memory of when he’d walked into the room earlier that night after questioning the servants. The Councilors had been discussing something urgent, but they’d stopped the moment he’d entered the room.

He had a feeling he knew what that something was. He could feel heat beneath his skin, growing with each uncomfortable moment. He could still remember Jiang’s face as he’d walked into the room and seen him and Suki locked in an embrace…

“And just what does that mean?”

“I think you know what that means, sire,” Jiang said. The seneschal avoided his gaze and glanced down the table. Zuko turned to the other members of his Council, studying them each in turn. Besides General Ma, there was his keeper of purse, fat Bai, the peculiar Madame Biyu, barrel-chested Duke Ru, the aged but still beautiful Lady Lian, obsequious Osamu, and serious, sour-faced Guo.

He met all of their gazes in turn, but they looked away.

“If you have something to say, then say it. Clearly, you’ve all been discussing something behind my back. Spit it out.”

There was a long pause as everyone shifted nervously.

“Sire, we’ve been talking…and the Council believes that perhaps it is time that the Kyoshi Warriors went back to their home on Kyoshi Island,” Osamu said finally, glancing down the table every other word.

Zuko’s brow furrowed. “And what makes you believe that?”

“Well…after last night’s failure…”

“What failure?”

“The two Kyoshi Warriors in the hallway failed to hear the fight and—“ Lady Lian started.

“Hardly their fault. The doors in this palace are thick and the walls are made of stone. I had asked them to stay in the hallway, for my own privacy. And it’s not like I screamed for help. I don’t blame Rin or Aiko. They came the moment they realized something was wrong, and it was Aiko’s dagger that killed the assassin. He was going to knock both Suki and I over the edge. I owe the Kyoshi Warriors my life. And not just for tonight. Why would you even suggest dismissing them?”

The Councilors glanced at one another, some of them shifting uncomfortably in place again.

“In truth, the Kyoshi Warriors are not the problem…” Lady Lian said.

Zuko pursed his lips. “Then what is the problem?”

“It is their Captain. Or rather your relationship with her,” Osamu said.

“Excuse me?”

“Sire, you must know how it looks,” Osamu said in his usual wheedling tone, leaning forward so that his bearded face caught the light. “How it will look to rest of the Fire Nation when the story gets out.”

“And what story is that?” Zuko challenged him. It was Madame Biyu who answered, though.

“That you were ambushed by an assassin while in bed with the captain of your bodyguards, of course.”

Zuko stood up so fast he knocked his chair over. “IN BED?! We weren’t in bed! We were having dinner. Suki and I have had dinner a hundred thousand times!”

“Were you or were you not kissing the Captain?” Lady Lian piped up. All of the blood drained from Zuko’s face and he glared at Jiang, who steadfastly avoided his gaze.

“That is none of your business. Any of you!”

“With all due respect, you  _are_ the Fire Lord. Your actions reflect on all of your subjects,” Osamu said.

“This is unbelievable! My actions—“

“We’re just concerned for you, Zuko. For your safety,” Bai intoned in a commiserating voice that rattled Zuko’s rapidly fraying nerves.

“My safety? How does this have anything to do with my safety?” he said, throwing his hands wide.

“Captain Suki is your bodyguard. It is her job to get between you and danger. Sire, you should have called for help, or run from the balcony. Instead you endangered yourself just to ensure the safety of your bodyguard, rendering her job pointless,” General Mak said in a no-nonsense tone.

“What, I should have left her there to fight off an assassin alone? She’s my friend!”

“Oh yes, we’re all very aware of how friendly the two of you are, sire. There have been rumors of your affair for months. Rumors we’d hoped to quash with this Ball,” Duke Ru said, causing Zuko to turn on him.

“Is _that_ why you’re doing this?”

“Fire Lord Zuko,” a somber voice interjected from the end of the table. Zuko turned on Councilor Guo.

Of them all, Guo was the most honored; the others looked to him for answers in the time of crisis. He was calm in the face of adversity and often let the others argue themselves into a stupor and seemed always to correctly judge when his advice or opinions were needed and would do the most good. The man was an expert at politics; he almost appeared not even to play the game, when Zuko knew that Guo was the best string-puller in the Fire Nation. That was why he’d appointed him to his Council.

“You have something to say, Guo?” Zuko said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Guo stood, his rugged face a mask of calm as he met Zuko’s gaze, where the others hadn’t had the nerve. “It is true that the Council has been concerned with your relationship with the Captain of your Guard for some time and had hoped to end the affair—“

“ _We’re not having an affair!_ ” Zuko interjected hotly. Guo nodded in deference.

“As you say, sire. Nevertheless, we had still hoped to interest you in a Fire Nation girl of a much more suitable rank and birth. As… _fond_ as we all are of the Captain, it cannot escape notice that she is not of the Fire Nation. She is also a servant.”

“She’s—“

Guo held up his hand. “I do not wish to be rude, sire, but these are facts. Personally I do not care whom you dally in the sheets with and I pay no mind to rumors, but since Princess Azula’s precarious mental health and…disappearance has made her unsuitable to inherit the throne, you  _are_  undeniably in need of an heir. You must wed and produce a legitimate heir as soon as possible. For the good of the Nation.”

“So you’ve all told me.”

“Then let us tell you again, sire, so that it sinks in. If you had died tonight, the Fire Nation would be a headless dragon. There are those who would seek the throne at all costs. You have distant relations, some of whom supported your father, others who have their own agendas. The Fire Nation would be thrown into a civil war. If you had an heir, this can be avoided.”

“How about I just avoid dying?”

“Fine words from a man who threw himself over a balcony to save an Earth Kingdom peasant,” Osamu snorted. “A peasant who belongs to another man.”

Zuko stared at them, his jaw ticking in time to his temper. He leaned forward and placed his hands flat on the table. His gaze dropped to the pile of parchment neatly stacked there, unable to look at any of them any longer. He could feel heat in hands, growing with each moment. Fire wanted to blaze out of him and burn everything in the room.

“Get out.”

“Sire…”

“Get out. All of you.”

“We’re just concerned—“

Zuko’s head jerked up and he knocked the parchment, inkpot and quill off of the table with one swipe of his hand. “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME LIKE THIS? LIKE I’M A STUPID CHILD! HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT ME? I AM YOUR FIRE LORD AND IT’S TIME I ACT LIKE IT! YOU DO NOT COMMANDE ME! I COMMAND  _YOU!_  I APPOINTED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU TO THIS COUNCIL AND I HAVE THE POWER TO DISMISS YOU AT ANY MOMENT! I WILL MARRY WHOMEVER I WANT, WHEN I WANT AND I WON’T HAVE YOU WHORING ME TO EVERY GIRL IN THIS KINGDOM LIKE A STALLION IN HEAT JUST TO PUT YOU AT EASE!”

“Sire…the money has already been spent…”

“Oh, you’ll have your damned ball. But if you think for one moment that I’m going to marry any of those girls you trot out before me, then you are sadly mistaken. You’ll get your heir whenever I damned well give it to you, whether that’s tomorrow or fifty years from now!”

“But sire…”

“Get out. I SAID GET OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT!  _NOW!_ ”

He met Guo’s gaze for a moment, seething as the middle-aged man looked at him calmly and then nodded curtly, and started toward the door. The other Councilors followed in his wake, with Fen scrambling to pick up the spilled inkpot and the parchment from the floor.

“LEAVE IT!” he snarled, causing Fen to squeak and dart toward the door, nearly tripping on his robes as he went. The council chamber door slammed shut behind them, leaving Zuko in a room that seemed suddenly, echoingly empty.

He was breathing hard, his gaze fastened to an errant teacup one of them had left on the table. Their words echoed in his brain. Rumors. There were rumors about him and Suki. He had never heard them before, but likely the Council had made sure that he hadn’t. The things they’d said about her angered him.

One kiss. Just one and suddenly they were having an affair. And if his Council believed that rumor, then it would spread all over the palace, and the Fire Nation beyond. What they would think of Suki…what they would whisper about her…

And worst of all, what would happen if word reached Sokka, somewhere in the South Pole?

All because of him. All because he’d been unable to control himself. There had been no honor in what he’d done, only selfishness.

His anger burst out of him all at once, like an explosive backdraft of flame unleashing in a room that had been smoldering for too long. With a growling scream of rage, he grasped the heavy oak table and flipped it. It hurtled end over end through the air and he turned in place with a swooping kick, sending a gout of flame smashing through the table. It broke into pieces, bits of wood burning on the floor, charring the marble and the rugs.

He wasn’t finished though. He threw the chairs and set them aflame one by one, then turned and punched the wall so hard he felt his knuckles skinning. He pulled his hand back and stared at the blood trickling down his fingers.

He stood like that for a minute, just staring at the red dripping onto the floor, seething, his Councilors words echoing in his ears. After a moment, the door of the chamber opened with a well-oiled sigh and he heard footsteps.

A sigh sounded from behind him and then he heard Suki say, “I always hated that table.”

* * *

 

Zuko turned around to face her, and she found herself staring at his wide eyes. He glanced from her to the burning remnants of what had once been his Council table, then back to her. He was breathing hard, his face red, hands fisted at his side. One hand was coated in blood and there was a smear of red on the stone wall behind him.

“Suki… What are you doing out of bed?”

Suki lifted her arm a little, which was in a sling, and winced when her shoulder gave a painful throb. “I’m injured, not an invalid. Besides, I wanted to examine the assassin’s body as soon as I could. Can’t do that from a bed. I didn’t find out anything though. He had no papers, no identification. Nothing but that tattoo.”

“Oh.”

“So…have an interesting night?” She gestured to the burning shrapnel of the furniture and watched as Zuko’s face went from red to purple.

“You could say that. The Council and I had a slight disagreement.”

“So I heard.”

“You heard? What did you hear?”

Suki met his gaze unwaveringly and lifted her chin. She’d heard every word while she’d waited outside of the door with Kikki and Tam, two of her Warriors. The girls had avoided her gaze, though no doubt they’d already heard the rumors of what had gone down on Zuko’s balcony already. Word traveled fast in the palace, especially when the gossip was so juicy.

And there was apparently nothing juicier than apparent confirmation of that…something was happening between her and Zuko. They were all going to fill in the gaps with their imagination, regardless of the truth. And there was nothing she nor Zuko could do to stop it.

“Nothing I didn’t expect. Well, maybe I expected them to be a little more subtle about it, but I’m not surprised. They’ve had it in for me for a while.”

“They have?”

She nodded and walked toward him, then reached out and took his bloody hand. She gently dabbed his knuckles with the sleeve of her robe. “They do it behind your back, mostly. It’s just been whispers and names and dirty looks until now. At first I thought it was because you sometimes bring me into the Council discussions. I thought they thought I was stepping on their toes, but then I realized that they seem to think I’m some sort of upstart Earth Kingdom seductress out to ruin their Fire Lord. I guess they’ve moved into open warfare now.”

“They’re idiots. All of them. I’ll fire them and appoint new Councilors.”

“No, you won’t,” she said softly, looking down at his skinned and bloody knuckles. “As much as I dislike them, every single one of them is loyal to the Fire Nation and has only ever done what’s best for your people. They’re good men and women…and they had some valid points.”

“Like what?” he said skeptically, wincing as she wiped the blood away from his knuckles with a sigh.

“I can’t do my job if you won’t let me, Zuko. You put yourself in danger just to help me, but that’s not how this works. I’m your bodyguard. I’d give my life for yours. You have to let me do that.”

“No. I can’t. I won’t,” he said, and made a cutting gesture with his other hand in the direction of the burning furniture. The flames died, leaving behind wispy plumes of smoke.

“Then what is the point of me being here? What is my purpose, if not to keep you safe? Don’t you trust me to do my job?” she said, dropping his hand and meeting his gaze. Zuko’s tired eyes widened, and then a deflated expression took hold of his face.

“Of course I do. I trust you with my life, Suki. But I won’t apologize for not just leaving you there on that balcony facing a man with a sword. I won’t. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if something had happened to you because of me. I am not helpless either. I’m a Firebender and a swordsman and I can defend myself.”

“Of course you can. But you shouldn’t have to. That’s my job. If something happened to you because I failed to protect you… Zuko, I…” she choked off, swallowing as Zuko stared at her. “You have to promise me that next you you’ll run for help. And you won’t jump off of a balcony again. That was a stupid move.”

“I knew what I was doing. I had to distract him, let him think he’d gotten what he wanted.”

“You could have slipped and fallen to your death. All because of me.”

“I made my choice, Suki. I would choose you over me any day.”

Suki stamped her foot and let out a frustrated sound. “Dammit, Zuko! When are you going to get it? I’m not important! You’re the Fire Lord!”

“ _You_  are important to me, dammit!” Zuko said, his temper flaring again. “I won’t apologize for fighting that assassin! But…I will apologize for what I did. I had no right.”

“To what?”

“To kiss you.”

They stared at one another for a long moment, neither of them breathing. The words echoed in the room. Suki licked her lips and tried to think of something to say. “I…I kissed you back.”

“Maybe, but I crossed that line first. That’s on me. It wasn’t honorable. I disrespected you and Sokka and your relationship. I’m sorry for that. It won’t happen again.”

“It won’t?”

“No. There are rumors already flying about last night. I won’t have your honor stained by my actions again. I won’t do that to you or Sokka. No matter how you feel about Sokka right now, you’re still with him. I won’t get in the way of that. I can’t.”

“Oh,” she said softly as Zuko turned away from her and stared at the wall, as if he wanted to sink into it and disappear.

“The rumors will die down. They always do. But until then I think… I think you should take some time off. Let your shoulder heal.”

“Are you telling me to stay away?”

“Yes.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

Zuko’s shoulders dropped a little and he half-turned to face her. “Please, Suki.”

Suki stared at him, feeling a knot forming in her chest. The pain of it outpaced the pain of her shoulder and she felt it echoing through her, from head to toe. Slowly, she stepped forward as Zuko turned to face her again. She stood up on tiptoe and leaned in as Zuko’s hand automatically went to her waist.

She gently kissed his cheek, giving him time to pull away if he wanted to. He didn’t. When she went to pull away, he turned his head and she felt his breath on her mouth.

She wanted to surge forward and kiss him, to continue where they’d left off the night before. She wanted to feel the rush again, the heat, that perfect moment of absolute rightness that had come over her.

Instead, she sank back onto her heels as his hand fell away from her waist, leaving her bereft and cold. She looked into his eye and said, “If that’s what you want. I’ll stay away.”

Zuko nodded and swallowed, the expression on his face tortured, as if he was thinking the very same thing she was. “It’s…it’s for the best.”

“Okay.”

Zuko took a breath, avoiding her gaze as he bit down on the inside of his lip. “I have to go.”

He moved past her, his feet slipping and sliding through the charred and smoking remains of the furniture. When he reached the door, she called out impulsively, “Did you mean it?”

He stopped, his hand on the doorknob. “Mean what?”

“Are you in love with me?”

Zuko’s head lowered and he seemed to stop himself from looking back at her at the last moment. He opened his mouth to speak, and then snapped it closed and walked out the door without answering her.


	6. Chapter 6

“I don’t want to wear any jewels,” Zuko said for what felt like the millionth time. He was standing at the balcony doors, staring out at the Caldera, wishing like hell that everyone would leave him be. No less than six servants were buzzing around him, making last minute alterations to his clothing and his hair. One servant had been dismissed with a hushed glare from Fen after loudly wondering if they should try and cover his scar with makeup.

“But sire, it’s not proper not to wear some sort of ornamentation…” the Royal jeweler wheedled, holding up a mahogany display case of rings. Zuko’s eyes slid over emeralds and rubies, diamonds, garnets and sapphires, all roughly the size of a baby sky bison. It was all too gaudy, too ostentatious. It was bad enough that his robes for the ball were embroidered with gold at the collar. He wasn’t going to exacerbate things by wearing a shiny boulder on his finger like one of the dandies he saw running around the Court.

“My crown is ornamentation enough,” Zuko said firmly.

“But sire…”

“I’m not wearing any of it!” he snapped and then stopped himself. He closed his eyes and counted to ten very slowly. Then did it three more times. A headache was throbbing in the back of Zuko’s eyes.  He wanted to be alone, not poked and prodded and asked endlessly dreary questions about what he wanted to wear. At this point he’d prefer to show up naked, rather than get poked by another one of the tailor’s pins.

“If you change your mind, sire,” the jeweler said softly, packing up his cases, “just send for me.”

“Of course. Thank you,” he forced out through his teeth and turned away from the small, round man. He glanced at the other servants in his room and watched as they ran around, doing who-knew-what, all under Fen’s exacting gaze.

Zuko turned back to the Caldera, rubbing at his temples and trying to tune out boy their voices and the fact that they kept stealing glances at him every few minutes or so. He knew what they were thinking, even if they wouldn’t say it in front of him.

He’d been in a foul mood all week and he’d been short with everyone. A large part of him was ashamed of his behavior; they were all just doing their jobs and didn’t deserve his ire. He just wanted them to leave him alone and most of all, he just wanted the rumors to stop.

No such luck.

Zuko shifted uncomfortably in place, sweating a little, despite the sultry breeze coming in from the newly-rebuilt balcony doors. The heat wave had been building over the past week, and despite its cool marble halls and airy windows, the palace was sweltering. It was making everyone cranky, not just him. Tempers were short and tensions were high.

Or perhaps that had more to do with the general atmosphere in the palace than the unbearable heat. After two days of lockdown, the palace and the Caldera had been reopened. The presence of the guards had increased tenfold. The seneschal was taking no chances on his safety. How the assassin had gotten into the palace had remained a mystery, but Zuko had been forced to let the preparations for the ball continue.

For days now, the palace had ben bursting with activity and people. Wagons came and went from the kitchens, filled to the brim with food and wine. An army of decorators had descended on the ballroom and they’d been buzzing around for days, making everything shine. The tailors, dressmakers and jewelers of the Capitol were said to be doing a booming business, dressing every eligible female in the finest of silks, jewels and gold, all in the hopes of catching his gaze.

Guests had been pouring into the Caldera. Every nobleman staying at the palace had been searched and questioned fully. Nothing suspicious had been found. General Mak had left the day after the assassination attempt in pursuit of the suspected group responsible, the Smoke Demons. There had been no reports to link the cell to the assassination attempt and many of the Councilors were starting to believe the man had been working alone.

Not that Zuko was currently on very good terms with his Council. They’d taken his outburst to heart and hadn’t brought up the prospect of marriage or an heir again and only spoke of the ball when necessary. It helped that the assassin had taken some of the heat off of matchmaking. They’d even stopped trying to introduce him to their relatives.

They hadn’t spoken of Suki again either. That probably had a lot to do with the fact that she had been noticeably absent from public view since the night of the attack, and even more notably, absent from his side. True to her word, Suki had stayed away from him for the last week. He kept telling himself he should have been relieved, but he wasn’t. He missed her.

It was like someone had ripped out his heart and put a burning coal there instead. _And all because I couldn’t keep my stupid feelings to myself. I compromised her honor, her reputation and our friendship. So stupid. What was I thinking?_

Well, he _hadn’t_ been thinking, obviously. He’d been berating himself ever since that night. Not just because of the kiss, or the rumors, or the damage he’d done. That was bad enough on its own. No, the worst part was that he’d actually told her how he felt. How had he let that slip? What was wrong with him?

“Fire Lord? The barber is here. I’ve been thinking, it would be nice if you got a haircut before the ball,” Fen said, appearing at his elbow. He didn’t even glance at the shorter man.

“I’m not cutting my hair.”

“But it’s gotten so long. Surely a trim? I’m thinking to your chin…”

“No.”

“Sire—“

“I SAID _NO_ , FEN!” Zuko snarled, turning on his secretary in an instant. He turned to the other servants and bellowed, “WILL YOU GIVE ME SOME PEACE AND QUIET FOR ONE DAMNED MINUTE!?”

One maid squeaked, dropped the pillow she was fluffing and ran out of the room with a sob. He instantly felt like the biggest shithead on the planet, but the damage had been done. He turned his back on them and listened to them filing out of the room.

Fen hesitated and then whispered, “As you wish. _…Asshole…_ ”

“What was that?” he asked in an edged voice, glaring at Fen, who looked back at him blandly.

“Nothing, sire. Ring if you need anything. I’m sure you won’t, though.”

“I won’t,” Zuko said, fighting a smile now. Fen was a first class boot-scraper and knew his job backwards and forwards, but he also had a sly sense of humor and a no bullshit attitude, which was why Zuko had hired him and why he liked him.

“Of course not,” Fen said behind him as he went out the door. Zuko let out a sigh as blessed silence filled the room. He closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. The next moment, the door opened and four bodies spilled inside in a rush of noise.

“FIRE LORD ZUKO DOESN’T WISH TO BE DISTURBED AT THE MOMENT!” Fen’s shrill voice cut through the air, making him flinch and whirl around to face the door.

“HALT!” Aiko commanded of a red-clad figure who laughed at her.

“Or what? You’ll attack me?” the woman barked in a familiar voice. A voice that sent chills of recognition up Zuko’s spine.

“If we have to!”

“I don’t need permission to see my brother. Isn’t that right, Zuzu?” Azula said, turning a sharp smile in his direction. Zuko stared at her in shock.

“Azula?!” he exclaimed in shock as she smiled back at him from the doorway and forcibly shoved Qing’s hand off of her shoulder.

“Who else would I be? Honestly, don’t you recognize your own sister?” Azula said as she shoved Aiko aside and walked forward. His eyes took her in. It had been almost four years since he’d last seen her. She had changed in that time and his mind quickly worked to reconcile his memories of her with the reality before him now. The teenage girl he had known was now a woman in full. She was taller, curvier, and more beautiful than he remembered. She looked so like their mother it was uncanny.

Fen let out a long-suffering sigh, holding up a scroll. “Sire, it seems Princess Azula is here to see you. I only just got the missive.”

“Yes, I’d gathered that,” Zuko said dryly.

“Sire?” Aiko asked questioningly, while Qing glared daggers at Azula’s back and fingered the fan on her belt. Azula glanced back at the both of them and rolled her eyes.

 “Don’t worry, your seneschal _and_ his guards cleared me and my friend when I arrived. It’s not like they can just kick their own princess out of the palace, you know. They might have had the authority if you’d ever gotten around to banishing me. Lucky for me that you never did.”

She had him there. He caught the gaze of the two Kyoshi Warriors and nodded. “If you’ll give us a moment, ladies? You too, Fen.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded, even though he definitely wasn’t sure he wanted to be alone with her. The last time he’d seen Azula, she’d been unstable, emotionally distraught and a danger to herself and everyone around her. He’d sent several agents after her, but after a year of continually giving them the slip, coupled with her apparent disinterest in causing more trouble than she already had, he’d let her go. The last report he had of her was that she was in Omashu. That had been three years ago.

“If you need us, sire…” Aiko said in a worried voice as Fen made a huffing noise.

“Try anything and I’ll break your arm,” Qing said to Azula, who smirked in reply. The two Kyoshi Warriors bowed out and Fen shut the door behind the three of them. Zuko caught Aiko’s worried gaze as the door closed.

“Well, don’t you just inspire such boundless amounts of loyalty in your subjects?” his sister said in a jaunty voice as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Even after you screamed at the servants like that!”

Zuko colored, suddenly feeling like the unsure teenager he had been so long ago. “You…uh…heard that?”

“The whole floor heard that. It’s amazing how much you resemble Father when you’re angry. And here I thought Uncle had taught you to play nice. All that power must be going to your head, Zuzu.”

“It’s not. I’m having…a bad day. Or a bad week, actually,” Zuko said, gesturing toward the chairs before the fire. Azula settled herself in, crossing her long legs and staring at him with a mysterious smile on her red lips. “So…uh…how have you been?”

“If you really cared, you would have found me and asked me that question four years ago.”

Zuko let out a breath. He’d almost forgotten how difficult having a simple conversation with her was. “I do care, Azula. I stopped looking for you because I thought you wanted it that way.”

“You’re right, I did,” she said with an easy shrug. “I’m just messing with you.”

“Okay,” he said, willing to play along if she wanted it that way. “Really, how have you been?”

“Do you mean am I still crazy?”

“Uhhhh…”

Azula tipped back her head and laughed. “Oh, Zuzu, I forgot how much fun you are!”

“Well, you can see why I’d worry… About you. And…you know, myself.”

Azula’s laugh petered out and she licked her lips. “I’m…better. Rest your crown-heavy head, Zuzu. I’m not about to fling myself off of a sky bison.”

“Oh. That’s…that’s good. So, what have you been doing, where have you been living?”

Azula shifted uncomfortably and then plastered a bright smile on her face. “Oh…here and there. I tend not to stay in one place for very long. I like to travel. I’ve made some interesting friends.”

He nodded, wondering what she was avoiding. He knew her too well to think that she was telling him the whole truth.

“So you just happened to travel this way when I’m throwing a ball?”

“Of course. I mean, if my brother is going to choose a wife, I should get to know her first, right?” she said viciously, causing him to groan and lean back in his chair. He rubbed at his forehead.

“I’m not choosing a wife. That’s not what this ball is for.”

“Why not? Is it because you’re sleeping with your bodyguard instead?” Zuko dropped his hand and stared at her in shock. _How far had that damned rumor gone?_ Azula grinned at him shamelessly. “How is dear Suki, by the way?”

“Don’t believe everything you hear, Azula.”

She lifted her hands. “It’s none of my business if you’re having an affair with a servant.”

“We’re not—! _Where did you hear that?_ ”

“The rumors about the two of you have been everywhere for months, Zuzu. Just recently, I heard that you were caught in bed together by an assassin. Is that why there’s an increase in security? I practically got strip-searched when I arrived.”

“That’s…that’s not what happened. There was an assassin. But we weren’t—Suki and I… I didn’t. Not in bed. We’re…” Zuko stammered and then stopped himself as Azula chuckled.

"Relax, Zuzu. I believe you," Azula said, although there was something in her eyes that he couldn't read. Like she didn't want to believe him. "It's not like I really care anyway... So, you and Mai really didn't work out, did you?"

“No. We didn’t. We broke up two years ago.”

Azula smiled mysteriously. “I know. She’s the one who sent me here.”

“What?” he asked in confusion.

“I lied. I didn’t just happen to come for a visit. Mai sent me here. ”

Zuko’s brow furrowed. “Why?”

“To kill you.”

Zuko blinked at her. “Mai sent you to kill me?”

Azula shrugged. “It must have been a bad breakup.”

“I wasn’t aware that it was _that_ bad.”

"You're not aware of a lot of things, Zuzu. Like the fact that last year Mai recruited me to a terrorist cell that wants to destroy your reign and take over your throne and your army. They told me they want to put me on the throne in your place, actually. The assassin you killed was one of ours, who botched the job. So they sent me and my...partner to the palace to do it properly. I honestly didn't think you'd let me anywhere near you, but you always were so trusting, Zuzu. It's a good thing you told your bodyguards to leave us alone together."

Zuko just stared at her, too shocked by the sudden outpouring of information to do much of anything else. “You’re serious.”

They stared at one another. Azula didn’t flinch or look away. He should have known better. He should have known he couldn’t trust her. Four years and she was still dangerous and unstable.

“My bodyguards are on the other side of that door right now.”

"You don't want to call for help.My partner is on his way and if we're having a fight to the death, he's going to be really angry."

"Where's your partner?"

Azula’s lips quirked at the corners. “He went to get Suki.”

Zuko jumped to his feet, flames sprouting on his hands. “If he touches her I’ll—“

Azula tipped her head back and laughed again. “You may not be sleeping with her, but you’re definitely in love with her, Zuzu. Some rumors are true, after all. Won’t this be interesting. Sit down, brother dear. If my partner hears of a fight in the Fire Lord’s suite, he’s been instructed to—“

“Damn you, Azula. I knew I shouldn’t trust you.”

An expression he couldn’t read flickered over Azula’s face before she said savagely. “Sit down, or things won’t go well for any of us.”

Zuko swallowed and glanced at the door. He should shout for help. It’s what Suki and the Council had told him to do. But if he did, Suki was dead.

Setting his jaw, Zuko sank into his seat across from Azula, seething with rage. “What now?”

Azula examined her red nails and smiled. “Now, we wait.”

* * *

 

“I want all of you on your guard. I know it’s a ball, but you’ll be there to work. Keep an eye on Zuko, but mingle in the crowd. Watch for signs of danger. Jiang’s guards are patting down everyone who enters, but keep vigilant. I don’t want any surprises tomorrow night,” Suki said to her assembled Warriors.

Including herself, there were ten Kyoshi Warriors in Zuko’s employ, and seven of them were assembled before her. Qing and Aiko were currently guarding Zuko in his suite, but Ty Lee, Xiuying, Mei Lin, Kikki, Rin, Chao-Ahn and Tam stared at her from their respectful positions on the floor, their hands neatly folded in their laps. They were all sweating in their full uniforms. The heat in the palace was unbearable and her temper was high as a result.

 _Sure. It’s just the heat_ , she told herself wryly and turned her thoughts away for Zuko for the millionth tie that day.

She’d just be happy when the stupid ball as over and done with and things got back to normal. _Right. Normal. As if I know what that means. I’m pretty sure things are never going to be normal again. Not since Zuko— No, stop. Stop thinking about him. He was right. No matter how mad you are at Sokka, that doesn’t give you the right to kiss someone else. So just stop. Whatever your feelings are doing, just stop._

 “Okay,” she said, forcing herself to focus. “I think that’s about it for the briefing. Remember to dress in civilian Fire Nation clothing. I want you to blend in as much as possible. No paint, but keep your weapons on you. You’ll have to be cleared by the seneschal, so make sure they recognize you when you enter.”

The girls nodded and stood.  Kikki glanced at the others and then asked, “Are you coming to the ball, Captain?”

She pulled a tight, humorless smile. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“It’s just… What with everything…”

Suki’s eyebrow lifted and she inhaled sharply, her teeth setting. “I won’t let some stupid, baseless rumor keep me from doing my duty.”

“But your shoulder…” Xiuying started, but Suki cut her off.

“Is healing. You’re all dismissed,” she said curtly, in a tone that brooked no argument.

One by one the girls filed out of her room, whispering amongst themselves and glancing back at her. She fought the urge to throw a dagger at one of their backs, and instead smoothed her sweaty hands down the front of her uniform. She let out a breath as the door closed, then jumped when she turned around and came face to face with Ty Lee.

She clutched her chest in surprise.  “I thought you’d left! What are doing?”

“Oh, nothing,” Ty Lee said brightly, flashing a wide grin. “I was just wondering if you knew how absolutely miserable Zuko’s been lately? And why?”

Her face flushed beneath her makeup. “Why would I know that?”

“Right, of course. How would you know how he’s been, since you’ve been avoiding him all week.”

“I haven’t been avoi—“

“Yeah, you have. We’ve all heard the rumors, you know.”

“And you believe them?” she challenged the shorter girl, whipping around on her with blazing eyes. “ _You_ , of all people?”

“Of course not. I know they’re not true. But I also know there _is_ something going on between the two of you. You kissed…”

“We’re just friends,” she said firmly.

“Right, and keeping your distance will certainly keep things that way. Meanwhile, you’re both walking around like you’ve got a mortal stab wound and might die at any moment. Zuko’s yelling at everyone and when he’s not doing that, he refuses to speak to anyone.”

“What’s…what’s your point, Ty Lee?” she said, hiding the way her hands were suddenly shaking. Ty Lee shrugged and started toward the door. She stopped at the door and then turned back to face her.

“Suki, I know what it’s like having rumors circulating about you because of who you’re dating or who you have feelings for. What people say can hurt. A lot. But you have to ignore them and do what you want. And…maybe I just think that if everyone is going to talk about you, you might as well give them something _worth_ talking about…and have some fun while you’re doing it. Instead of making yourself miserable,” Ty Lee said.

“What do you want me to do, Ty Lee? Have an affair with Zuko?” Suki scoffed.

“I didn’t say that. I just think that if you really, really wanted to be with Sokka you wouldn’t have fifty half-started replies to his letter sitting on your desk right now. And you certainly wouldn’t be _here_ when you could be _there._ Zuko gave you time off. You could be halfway to the Southern Water Tribe by now. But you’re not.”

Suki glanced at her desk, at the letters she’d started and either scribbled out or crumpled up. “It’s not that simple.”

“It rarely is. With all due respect, Captain, get your shit together,” Ty lee said and then headed toward the door. She left with a bow, leaving Suki standing in the middle of her suite, her gut in knots and her fingernails digging into her palm.

_If she thought that was helpful, she was pretty damned wrong._

It wasn’t her fault Zuko was acting weird. She had stayed away from him at his request. It felt strange, wrong even, not to see him every day, to talk, to laugh and joke with him. To spend time in the practice ring, working out their frustrations together. She felt like she was missing a limb. Or even worse, a torso. She just…missed him. Keenly. Sharply.

_She’s right though. Zuko told me to take time off…so why haven’t I gone to see Sokka?_

Guilt suffused her as she sighed and sat down at her desk. She reached into the top drawer and pulled out Sokka’s letter. She reread it again, hoping for insight and inspiration. Ty Lee was right about that too. She hadn’t had the nerve to write him back, afraid of what she might say if she unlocked the floodgate. She’d started too many times, only to chicken out and crumple them up. The idea of seeing him face to face was even more unfathomable. What would she say? What would she feel?

_Ugh. Nothing makes sense anymore._

“Damn,” she mumbled and shoved the letter back in the drawer, snapping it closed. For now, she was content to deal with Sokka the same way she was dealing with the rumors: by ignoring it.

One advantage of avoiding Zuko was that she hadn’t come in contact with any of his Councilors since the night of the attack. Now that she definitely knew that they wanted her gone, she hoped to continue the trend. The rumor about the two of them was still flying thick and heavy all around the palace. She’d passed several servants, more than a few guards, and an infinite number of Fire Nation girls hoping to marry Zuko in the halls who had stopped and glared at her. Some of them had even openly called her some not-so-kind names.

_I’ve been painfully celibate for ten months and yet somehow I’ve managed to gain a reputation as a slut. Will wonders never cease?_

Suki ran a hand through her hair and hung her head. The ball was tomorrow. All she wanted was to get it over and done with. Maybe after that life would start making sense again.

_Yeah, right._

Standing, Suki stretched and then headed toward the bathing chamber. A nice cold bath to wash the sweat from her body, and a fresh bandage and some soothing ointment on her shoulder was in order. Maybe some chamomile tea and a plate of fresh, cold fruit… She wanted to forget her troubles for a little while.

And keep her mind firmly off of Zuko.

As she walked into her bathing room, she felt the air stir at her left. Her instincts kicked in quicker than thought and she turned in place, striking out with her right fist. The blow took the black-clad figure hiding behind the door in the face, knocking him back against the wall.

He recovered in an instant, blocking the next blow she aimed at his face. He turned her strike and their arms tangled. Her injured shoulder gave a throb of pain as she shifted her weight, grabbed the assailant, jammed her hurt shoulder beneath his ribcage and threw him over her shoulder.

He landed on the floor before her with a smack hard enough to crack the tiles. The wind rushed out of him as she grabbed the dagger from her belt. Her booted foot came down on his throat as she bent over him.

“Who are you? What do you want?”

“Ssssuuukiii… Suki, isssh meeee…”

“Speak up, asshole,” Suki said, noticing the black flame tattoo peaking from a gap in his black shirt. She stepped off of his throat, reached down, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and put the knife to his jugular. “Who do you work for?”

A laugh escaped him as he stared at her with bright blue eyes. Blood trickled down the corner of his split lips. “Don’t you recognize me?”

“Who do you work for?” she barked as he scoffed.

“Suki! It’s me, dammit!”

Suki stared at him, eyes widening as recognition slowly crawled over her. Her mouth opened and she dropped him back onto the cracked tile as her hand went numb.

“…SOKKA?!”


	7. Chapter 7

Nothing made sense.

The man before her looked nothing like the Sokka she had known she was fifteen-years-old. She backed up a step, mouth gaping as she squinted at him, looking past the long, dark hair, the heavily stubbled beard across his square jaw, the black flames tattooed on his muscular arms and chest. He was wearing black leather pants, and a thin, black sleeveless shirt piped in red.

He looked nothing like Sokka, except for those Water Tribe blue eyes, dark skin and the exasperated expression on his face that she knew so well. He swiped blood away from his lips with a gloved hand.

“What the fuck?” she exclaimed, touching her fingers to her temples and then throwing out her hands, as if that might force the world to start making sense again. “WHAT. THE. FUCK?”

“Well, it’s good to see you too,” Sokka said dryly, and slowly climbed to his feet. He rubbed at his bruising throat and then looked her up and down. “You can drop the knife.”

She glanced at the knife and then slid it back into the sheath at her belt with a smooth gesture. She lifted her chin and glared at him. “What are you doing here? I thought you were at the Southern Water Tribe. Why did you attack me?”

“Actually, _you_ attacked _me_ ,” he said, his tongue pressing into the bloody cut on his lip. Suki paused, trying to remember what had just happened. She blushed as she realized that he was right.

She drew herself up. “You surprised me, okay? Why were you hiding behind my door? How did you get in? How long were you there? And why do you look like… _that?_ ”

“That’s a long story, and I don’t have time to tell it right now,” Sokka said, going to the open bathroom door and glancing into her suite. “Good, all the girls are gone.”

“Why is that good?”

“Because I don’t want anyone to know I’m here in the palace,” he said and then reached out, grasping her wrist. “Now I need you to—”

Suki yanked her wrist out of his hand and backed up a step, her gaze on the black flame tattoo on his chest. “Why do you have that? I’ve seen it before. On an assassin who put a knife in my shoulder and tried to kill Zuko.”

Sokka glanced down at his chest and then up at her again. He looked frustrated and harried. And for the first time, she noticed the dark circles under his eyes, the leanness of his face, the hard line of his shoulders, the nasty scar on his forehead that stretched into his hairline, and the shine of more scars on his arms. He looked like a man who'd been through hell and back. “There’s a perfectly good explanation, but we really do not have time for it. I need you to get to Zuko’s suite right now. Azula and I…”

Suki’s heart leaped, her stomach dropped and her hand went to the knife on her belt again. “Azula! What do you mean? Are…are you working with _Azula?”_

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“For about ten months now.”

“Ten _months?_ ” She couldn’t help but note that that was the same amount of time she’d spent waiting for a letter from him. She glared at him. “What the hell have you two been doing for _ten months?_ ”

“Suki—”

“Where is she?”

“She’s with Zuko, and…it’s….it’s not what you think. I can explain everything, I swear. But right now we have to stop Zuko from doing something stupid, like attacking Azula. If that happens, we’re all dead!”

“Why would—?”

Sokka wiped his hand down his face and grasped her shoulders. “Suki! Do you trust me?”

She stared up into Sokka’s blue eyes. Did she trust him? What a question… Five minutes ago she would have answered yes unwaveringly, but now… It was hard to know what to feel through the shock of his sudden appearance _._

_It’s Sokka. Sokka…_

She took a deep breath and then nodded. “I trust you.”

A ghost of a smile hit Sokka’s lip and then faded beneath a serious scowl. “Good. Then you need to get to Zuko’s suite as soon as possible. I need you to go ahead alone, and dismiss the guards you’ve got on his door.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s someone in the palace who wants Zuko dead.  We don’t know who it is, and frankly I don’t trust anybody in the palace _but_ you and Zuko. No one can know I’m in his suite, or that you know I’m here, not even the other Kyoshi Warriors. If they get wind that I’m not who I say I am, that Azula and I aren’t on their side, they’ll cover their tracks and we’ll never catch them.”

“The girls would never—”

“Suki, please… Zuko’s life is in danger. Azula’s too. And maybe mine, if things go according to plan.” Her mouth opened in protest, but she slammed it closed and he went on. “If you trust me, I need you to do this. I _will_ explain everything, I promise.”

“Okay, but what about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll get to Zuko’s suite on my own,” Sokka said as he herded her toward the door. “Just hurry. Azula’s probably made everything worse.”

“If something happens to Zuko, I swear…” she said with a tight throat.

Sokka stopped, and an odd expression flickered across his face for a moment. Then he seemed to clamp down on it and avoided her gaze. “Go. I’ll follow close behind.”

He practically shoved her out of the door of her suite and into the stifling heat of the hallway. The door closed and she stared at it for a few seconds and then took off for Zuko’s suite at a brisk pace. She wanted to break into a run, but too many people would wonder why she was running. If Sokka was right, she couldn’t afford to answer questions, or to gather any suspicions about her behavior.

Despite the fact that she trusted Sokka, she still didn’t know exactly what was going on. That someone was trying to kill Zuko wasn’t surprising, not after the botched assassination attempt, but the fact that Sokka thought someone in the palace was responsible was. Who would be trying to kill Zuko? What would they gain from it?

And why was Sokka obviously undercover, and why was he working with Azula, of all people. Nothing about the situation made even the slightest bit of sense, but he’d promised to explain, and she’d promised to trust him.

She put a neutral expression on her face as she walked up the grand, winding stairs that lead to Zuko’s suite at the top of the tallest tower in the palace. The climb had always seemed long to her, but now it seemed interminable as she kept up a purposeful, but steady pace. Her limbs ached to run, to close the distance between her and Zuko, to get between him and disaster, and whatever assassin’s blade was closing in on his neck.

She was sweating by the time she approached his doorway. Aiko and Qing seemed surprised to see her and saluted her smartly. The hall was stuffy and hot, and there were no windows to draw in a breeze to cool it. Someone had placed clay pots of water in the corners of the hall, in an attempt to cool the air through evaporation, but the humidity just turned it all to soup. Sweat beaded through Aiko’s white makeup, and blurred the sharp black lines of her eye makeup.

“Captain…” Aiko started, glancing back at Zuko’s wide door, which was closed. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to speak to the Fire Lord about the security plans for the ball tomorrow,” she said in a voice that didn’t waver.

“He…has a visitor…” Aiko said as Qing nodded. “Princess Azula.”

Suki’s eyebrow raised and she glared at the two of them. “And who authorized her to have access to the Fire Lord? I certainly didn’t.”

“The Fire Lord, actually,” Qing said, lowering her voice, presumably so that no one inside of the suite could hear her. “She just barged in, Captain. We weren’t sure if we should stop her, her being the princess and all. Zuko’s the one who let her in and told us to stand guard out here.”

“We were just following his orders.”

“Of course you were,” she sighed and then looked them both over. “Nevertheless, word should have been sent to me that the princess had gained access to the Fire Lord. Don’t let this happen a second time.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Now, Zuko and I will probably be busy all afternoon. The two of you look hot and sweaty. Why don’t you take the rest of your shift off? I’ll take it from here.”

Qing nodded and then bowed to her; there was nothing unusual about her command, after all. She frequently guarded Zuko by herself, often enough that it wouldn’t be suspicious, but Aiko looked worried. “Are you sure, Captain? We remember how Azula was…”

She waved her hand at them and touched the handle of Zuko’s massive door. “Thank you, girls. You’re dismissed.”

Qing seemed grateful to escape the oppressive, stuffy heat of the hallway and Aiko slowly followed her. She hesitated at the steps, casting a strained look back at Suki for a moment before turning to follow Qing out of sight down the stairs.

Suki breathed out in relief and turned back to the door. She didn’t know what to expect on the other side. Zuko, certainly, and perhaps in danger even now. Azula…still crazy, unhinged and murderous? Who knew. And Sokka… Sokka, who looked nothing like the man she’d known for so long…

_Sokka, what have you gotten yourself into this time? What’s on the other side of this door?_

There was no telling and delaying the inevitable would only make it worse. She grabbed the knife from the sheath at her waist and held it lightly in her palm, ready to throw if it came to that. She couldn’t hear anything through the heavy door, but that meant nothing, considering the Aiko and Rin hadn’t heard the fight with the assassin through them until the balcony doors had shattered. That was a security issue she’d have to rectify soon.

She didn’t bother to knock, and instead opened the door a crack and slipped inside.

“Suki!”

She barely had time to glance around the room, clocking the corners of the room and the woman in the chair, before her gaze met Zuko’s. She saw fear in his eyes, and was bewildered that the fear was for _her._ Then he was out of his chair and running at her, a ball of fire glowing defensively in his palm.

“Zuko, what…?”

He grabbed her, pulling her away from the door. He glared at it, the ball of fire sparking fitfully. “Where is he? Did he hurt you? I swear I’ll kill him if he put one hand on you!”

“What are you talking about? What’s going on?” she asked, gripping Zuko’s arm. He turned wild eyes on her and she saw confusion in his gaze as well. Whatever was happening, he was just as lost as she was.

“Azula said—” he started, gesturing toward the woman seated in a gold-brocaded chair a few feet away. It took Suki a moment before it sunk in. The last time she’d seen Azula, the girl had been wild-eyed and unstable, barely coherent and dangerous.

Now there was a thinness to her that spoke of hard times, hollows in her cheeks, a stiffness to her shoulders, and shadows beneath her eyes that no amount of makeup could hide. There was something familiar about her appearance, about the way she held herself, like she’d been fighting for her life for days on end and wanted nothing more than to rest. Despite the clear signs of exhaustion on her, Zuko’s sister, if possible, had grown more beautiful over the years. And no doubt, more deadly.

Right now she was smirking at Suki, watching Zuko as he protected her from an enemy that wasn’t there. As Suki met her shining gaze, she could see amusement there, buried somewhere beneath the obvious alertness that lurked in the corners of Azula’s mind.

The feeling of familiarity started to make sense; Azula and Sokka both had the same look about them, like hunted animals. All of the words on her lips sank back down her throat and she stared at Azula, unsure what to think, unable to speak, to explain anything.

“She said you were in danger,” Zuko finished softly, when it was obvious there was no danger nipping on her heels, ready to burst through the door and draw blood.

“Actually, I didn’t say that. You _assumed_ that she was and I just let you,” Azula said boredly.

“What?” Zuko snarled, taking a step toward his sister, the flames in his hands flaring up like a bonfire out of control. “But you said that Mai sent you here to kill me, that you were working with someone, and that he was going after Suki!”

“Well, technically none of that was a lie. You just assumed the worst. Honestly, it’s like you don’t trust me at all,” Azula said and then smiled at Suki. “You’re being awfully quiet. Zuzu, maybe you should ask your girlfriend who my partner is?”

Zuko turned confused eyes on her, the fire in his hands making yellow light dance in his eyes, and causing shadows to nest in the uneven skin around his scarred eye.  Azula’s words were like a slap to the face.

_Girlfriend._

She thought of that odd look on Sokka’s face when she’d nearly run from the room, thinking Zuko was in danger. She suddenly knew without a doubt that he had heard the rumors about her and Zuko. After all, if Azula knew, then so did Sokka. She bit down on her tongue hard enough to draw blood.

She opened her mouth to speak, though she didn’t know what she was going to say, or how she would go about explaining what was going on when she didn’t even know herself. Before she could get out a word, there was the sound of rock scraping on rock from Zuko’s bedroom, and seconds later a black-clad figure stepped into the room.

“What?” Zuko started, attempting to put himself between her and the stranger. Suki met Sokka’s gaze and flinched as his blue eyes clocked the way Zuko’s arm was across her, and the death grip she’d taken on his waist, the knife raised in defense, even though there was nothing to defend herself from. She wanted to tell Zuko his identity, that everything was going to be fine, but the words refused to come. “Who are you? How did you get in here?”

“Ah, Zuzu, I believe you already know my partner in crime,” Azula said with some glee as he stepped up and stood beside her chair. “Sokka.”

* * *

Shock hit Zuko. The name, coupled with the face before him didn’t match up in the slightest. The stranger’s sudden appearance had rattled him, thrown his already confused mind into a tailspin. He felt Suki’s fingers dig into his waist as she lowered the knife and let out a none-too-steady breath.

“Zuko, it’s me. Tell him, Suki,” the black-clad stranger said in a familiar voice. Zuko blinked and glanced at Suki, whose face seemed even paler than usual beneath her layer of white makeup. Her chin trembled a little as she startled at the sound of her name. She looked up at him and nodded shortly, her fingers releasing from their clasp on his robes.

He peered at Sokka, trying to find his friend beneath the unfamiliar hair, the beard, the black tattoos on his arms. There was very little of the man he knew in there; the man before him looked dangerous, like he'd killed someone with his bare hands and was prepared to do it again at any moment. He walked forward and placed a gloved hand on the back of Azula’s chair. His sister was grinning, as if she’d just heard the funniest joke in the world.

“What did you say to him? I thought we were going to do this quietly,” Sokka said accusingly to Azula, who pouted a little.

“You never let me have any fun. You should have seen him squirm. It was funny.”

“Dammit, Azula.”

Zuko dropped his hand, extinguishing the flames dancing inches from his palm. He glared at the two of them, at Suki, and then said shortly, “Okay. Explain.”

"It's a long story, you should probably sit down," Sokka said, pushing his long hair back behind one ear. Zuko noticed a thin scar on his forehead, one that disappeared into his hairline. He wondered how he'd gotten it.

“First tell me how you got in into my suite.”

“There’s a secret tunnel in your bedroom behind that landscape tapestry. Father had it built during the war,” Azula piped up nonchalantly. “Don’t worry. The only people who know about it are in this room. Well, I suppose Father does, but he’s in prison, isn’t he? And he had the builders killed so it wouldn’t get out that he had a secret escape tunnel.”

“And why did you use it?”

“Isn’t it obvious, moron?” Azula said with an impatient sigh, dropping the hand she’d been studying boredly. “Sokka is undercover. He couldn’t be seen walking into the Fire Lord’s suite, could he?”

 _That_ he understood, at least. He needed more answers though, and he needed them _now._

Zuko glanced at Suki again, but she seemed stone-faced, stunned, her lips pressed into a thin line. Concern flooded him and he reached out, touching her hand. “Are you okay?”

She blinked and glanced down at their hands, then yanked her hand away. “I’m fine. I think you two should explain.” She turned back to the others and crossed the room, sinking down into a chair carefully, avoiding everyone’s gaze. Zuko followed her, looking up and catching Sokka’s gaze. There was a hardness in his blue eyes, a hardness Zuko had never seen there. He seemed angry, and hurt, and he looked as world-weary as his sister did.

“Why are you undercover? Start at the beginning,” he demanded as he sat down in the chair beside Suki’s. Sokka remained standing; he seemed too alert to relax, and his eyes kept shifting to the newly-rebuilt balcony doors, as if he didn’t trust their sturdiness.

“I already told Suki,” Sokka started, glancing at her and then away again. “Someone in the palace wants to kill you. They sent that assassin after you last week, and when that failed, they sent Azula and me in to finish the job.”

Zuko held up his hands. “Why are you and Azula…? What is going on between you two?”

Azula smirked and Sokka made an odd noise in his throat, and then said through clenched teeth, "About ten months ago, Azula and Mai came to me in Republic City and told me that they had been recruited to a terrorist cell called the Smoke Demons. The Smoke Demons are only interested in one thing, Zuko. Killing you and putting someone else on the throne."

Zuko absorbed the information and then said slowly, "Mai is a part of this organization too? You weren't lying about that?"

  
  


Azula grinned. "They approached her after your big breakup, probably thinking she'd turned on you and would want nothing more than to be instrumental in your downfall. Good thing for you, she didn't hate your guts...although why, I'll never know. Relax, Zuzu. She didn't turn on you. She's been playing double agent, trying to ferret out the leaders of this thing. It hasn't been easy on her."

Somehow that information eased a few of his nerves; the thought that Mai really _had_ turned on him, and had sent his sister to assassinate him had been quite a blow. Now he felt guilty for thinking that it might have been true.

“The only problem is,” Sokka said, “she isn’t high enough in the ranks to tell us who the agent in the palace is. That information is kept a secret by the leaders of the Smoke Demons…and Mai has never met them. She doesn’t even know their names.”

“Okay, so how did you get involved?” he asked, turning to his sister.

“I told you, Mai recruited me. She used that wretched June and her shirshu to sniff me out. And believe me, recruiting me was _not_ her idea. She was commanded to find me by her higher ups…apparently she thought that I would blow her cover. Or that I’d actually relish the chance to assassinate the Fire Lord.”

It was Suki who spoke up and said sarcastically, “Where would she get an idea like that?”

Azula and Suki glared at each other for a long moment before Azula laughed. “Good point. But I’ll have you know that from the moment Mai walked in and started going on and on about how you should be taken off the throne and how your breakup affected her, I knew she was lying. She was angry with you, hurt. But there is no way that Mai would ever want _you_ dead, Zuzu. I finally got the truth out of her, and convinced her that I wasn't interested in killing you, Zuzu. Although I still don't think she entirely trusts me.”

Zuko studied his sister’s face, looking for the lie, looking for anything that might give him a clue as to why his sister would try and protect him. He couldn’t find it. It didn’t make sense.

“Why did you do that? Why protect me?”

Azula shifted in her seat. “Frankly, I did it because I was bored. It seemed like fun. So much intrigue. It beat tramping around the world, playing mercenary.”

 _There_ was the lie. He knew it, and so did she.  He let it slide though.  

"The Smoke Demons told Azula they were going to put her on the throne, but she and Mai don't believe they mean that. And neither do I," Sokka said, perching on the edge of Azula's chair. Azula glanced up at him and pulled a little smirk as she studied his profile for a long moment.

Then she said, "Even if I wanted the throne, which I don't, they would just assassinate me or imprison me for murdering you, Zuzu. They recruited me just to keep tabs on me, and to use me to their advantage. They'll discard me when the time is right...but I have no intention of being anyone's stooge."

  
  


"So how did Sokka become involved?" Suki asked tightly.

Azula and Sokka exchanged amused glances. "It was Mai's idea. She doesn't trust me, and she also...thought I was in over my head. She wanted me to have a babysitter, someone whom she trusted. And someone who was loyal to you, Zuzu. Someone who was willing to risk their life to save yours, and go undercover to do it. The Avatar was out, obviously, and so were the little blind Earthbender and the Avatar's Waterbender. They're all too recognizable. Sokka was the obvious choice. I disagreed...at first... But he won me over eventually."

Sokka's gaze flicked to Azula and back again, and then over to Suki, then down at the floor. As if he'd been caught thinking something he shouldn't have. Zuko's eyes narrowed.

"She showed up in Republic City the night you two left on your last visit. I didn't believe her at first. We had a bit of an argument."

“Actually you _attacked_ me when I showed up in your office.”

“And I kicked your ass, too,” Sokka said, lifting an eyebrow and grinning down at her.

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“I left a scar.”

“I told you, that was already there,” Azula said, jabbing her elbow into his hip. Zuko lifted one brow, staring at the two of them. Nothing about the exchange was right. The last time Azula and Sokka had been together, they’d been at each other’s throats. Now they were teasing each other like old friends. There was comfortableness there, and the argument had the feel of an old one. He glanced at Suki, but she was still stone-faced, staring at the carpet, her fingers clenched tightly in her lap.

Zuko cleared his throat and Sokka started, glancing back at the two of them as if remembering where he was.

"Anyway, after a lot of convincing on Mai's part, I finally agreed to join the Smoke Demons under an assumed identity. They know me as Tazeo, a Fire Nation colonist who resents the Harmony Restoration Movement. Mai was sent to recruit the real Tazeo, but she..." Sokka hesitated, running a hand through his hair. "She killed him and stole his identity. I've been pretending to be him ever since."

"Mai killed him?"

"Yeah...well... Tazeo is no loss. Don't think too harshly of her. Mai's been protecting your ass for months. She's had to do a lot of things she wishes she hadn't," Sokka said harshly, and a bit defensively. Zuko stared at him, at the hunted look in his eyes, the exhaustion etched on his face. He had a feeling Sokka wasn't just talking about Mai. What had Sokka had to do?

"Do Aang and Katara know about this?" Suki asked, brow furrowed. Sokka winced at that.

“They do. Katara’s been covering for me. We’ve passed around the story that I went to the South Pole to visit my family. No one can know where I am, or where I’ve been.”

“Not even me.”

Suki’s voice was soft, hurt, angry, with just enough of each that the words came out accusatorily. Sokka’s jaw clenched and he took to his feet again.

“Suki…” he started, obviously struggling with what to say to her. Zuko found himself staring at Azula’s hands; he noticed that they were suddenly knuckle-white, her red nails digging into her palms. “I wanted to tell you. But everything happened so fast, and writing to you might have broken my cover. Not only that but we couldn’t be sure that the spy in the palace wouldn’t intercept my letter. We decided that the best thing to do was—”

“Don’t bother explaining,” Suki said in a rush, lifting her head and meeting Sokka’s gaze. Zuko could tell by the set of her jaw that she was angry. Possibly angrier than he’d ever seen her.

“But I did try! Last week! When we found out they were sending an assassin.”

Zuko remembered the letter Sokka had sent Suki, and as he watched Suki, he knew that she remembered too.

“You didn’t say anything in that letter about an assassin!”

“Because I couldn’t! The only thing I could tell you was to watch Zuko’s back. I thought…”

“Nevermind the letter,” Suki said sharply. “So after she recruited you, then what happened?”

Azula and Sokka looked at each other again and then looked away quickly. “We were sent out. On assignment.”

“What does that mean?” Zuko pressed.

Sokka sighed. "The Smoke Demons don't just want to assassinate you, Zuko. They want to take down the Fire Nation army too, so that no one can oppose them when they do take over. We believe they've been infiltrating the army. We don't know how many agents, or their ranks. They didn't tell us much and we only had contact with a few agents. They sent us on missions--blowing up depots, stealing weapons, destroying mines. That was our job, with the promise of one day getting a shot at assassinating you."

Rage flared through Zuko and he stood, eyes flashing, lips curling back from his teeth in a snarl. “And you just did it? You went along with it, while my people burned? There was an orphanage last month that burned down because of the Smoke Demons! Children died! Were you responsible?”

Azula stood up so quickly that she knocked over her chair. She backed up a few steps, her face suddenly paper white. “NO! That wasn’t us! That wasn’t us. That wasn’t us. That wasn’t us. THAT WASN’T _ME_!”

Zuko’s eyes widened at the sudden change in Azula’s amused, almost bored demeanor. She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack as her hands lifted, her nails digging into her cheeks. She squeezed her eyes shut, chanting in a frantic voice.

“What’s wrong with her?” Zuko exclaimed, her sudden panic infecting him.

Sokka ignored his question and reached out, touching Azula’s wrists, trying to gently pry her nails out of her face. He murmured to her in a soothing voice, “Shhh… It’s okay. Remember where you are, Azula. Focus on me. Remember? Remember what’s real.”

Suki stepped up beside him, watching the two of them with an odd expression on her face.

“What’s real?” Azula whispered, heaving out a shaky breath. Her hand flattened on his heart.

“I’m real. Remember? I’m real. Focus on me,” Sokka said soothingly.

“You’re real. _You_ are. Sokka…” Azula breathed and then closed her eyes. She let out another shaky breath, and the air seemed to suddenly deflate out of her. Sokka pulled her forward and pressed his face into her hair for a moment, and then turned back to Zuko and Suki.

"She has panic attacks sometimes, but I can usually calm her down. It...uh...helps if she can focus on something she knows is real," Sokka said nervously, avoiding Suki's gaze with something like shame in his eyes. Azula suddenly pushed away from Sokka and smoothed her hand down the front of her shirt. As suddenly as her attack had come on, it had had faded. Zuko gaped at her.

“Don’t sugarcoat it, Sokka. They know I’m crazy,” she said shortly.

“Don’t call yourself that.”

"We're not having this conversation again," Azula snapped at him, and then walked forward, her chin lifting in defiance. "Rinchaka Falls wasn't our fault, but we were there. The things we did... We had to do them. If we didn't they would have killed us. They even tried to, a couple of times."

"That's the price you pay for failure when you join the Smoke Demons."

"You should be thanking us, Zuzu. You don't know what we've endured. For you. The Smoke Demons will do anything to destroy you, even if it means burning the Fire Nation to the ground."

“We had to do it. Every single horrible thing we did…we had no choice, not if we were going to get close enough to warn you about what they were planning,” Sokka said.

“Why not just come to me yourself? Tell me in person!” Zuko exclaimed.

“Because we still don’t know who the spy is! All we know is that they’re in the palace. They could be anyone, and they want you dead. We’re afraid if they find out you know about their existence they’ll cover their tracks and we’ll never find them.”

Suki lifted her hands. “So why did they send you two?”

Azula's mouth twisted a little. "That was always the plan. For me to do it. Well, the Smoke Demons think I'll do it, but the plan was always to warn you, to fake the assassination attempt and use our failure to ferret out the real agent in the palace. But something happened last week, and a different assassin--"

"--A bastard named Rian," Sokka interrupted with a snarl of pure, seething hatred.

"--Was sent to kill the two of you," Azula finished. "We don't know why they jumped the gun, but after the attempt failed, Mai was able to convince them to stick to the original plan. To send me to kill you."

"Except," Sokka sighed, "they forbid Azula from assassinating you."

"I don't know why that's a relief, but it is," Zuko said dryly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Why would they do that?"

"No idea...maybe their plans for her have changed. Whatever those plans are, they want me to do it instead."

"Actually, the idiot volunteered," Azula said sharply. "To prove his loyalty, Tazeo is going to sacrifice himself for the cause. He's supposed to either kill you or die in the attempt, and if he doesn't die, he's supposed to kill himself before he gives up any information. It's a suicide mission!"

"It's not like I'm actually going to do it, Azula. I'm pretty sure Suki would stop me if I tried," Sokka said, in an odd tone, one that worked on Suki like a firebrand. Sokka clocked her reaction and then plowed on, “In fact, I’m counting on it. We have a plan. I _am_ going to attack you at the Ball. And Suki _is_ going to stop me. You’re going to throw me in the dungeon.”

“And what will that do?” Suki said in an aggressive voice. Zuko glanced between them, noting the anger, the tension. He studied Suki’s face, but she was all business, focused on the task at hand.

“The Smoke Demons don’t allow for failure. Whoever the agent in the palace is…they’ll try and kill me to prevent me from talking. Especially if I’m vocal about what I know and if I hint that I know there’s an agent in the palace…and that I know who it is.”

“A suicide mission,” Azula said tartly and then smacked Sokka on the back of the head. “See? Idiot.”

“You really think they’ll try and kill you?”

“They’ll have no choice if they think I’m going to talk. If you three are there, waiting for them to shut me up, maybe we’ll get our guy.”

Zuko paced the floor, thinking. “There’s just one thing I don’t understand…”

“ _One_ thing?” Suki muttered beside him, under her breath. He glanced at her in amusement.

“If there’s an agent in the palace, why haven’t they tried to kill me themselves?”

Azula and Sokka exchanged glances again, and something passed between them, unspoken. “We don’t know. Possibly they don’t want their cover blown if the attempt goes bad. Maybe they don’t like to get their hands dirty? Or maybe there’s more than one agent. We honestly don’t know. Mai was only able to get so much information to us. All we really know is that your life is in danger and this is the only way to flush out the agent.”

“And you don’t have any clue who it is?” Suki asked.

“None. It could be anyone at all. That’s why I went to Suki instead of coming here. We needed the two Kyoshi Warriors guarding the room out of earshot. We can’t even trust them, I’m sorry. We just can’t,” Sokka said to Suki, but she was ignoring him. “No one can know we talked. That’s why I used the tunnel.”

Zuko went to the window, staring out at the hot Caldera. The wind was stiff, heavy with humidity.

“Are you sure this is the only way?”

“If you have a better plan, I’d love to hear it,” Sokka said harshly.

Zuko stared out the window for a long time. He could feel the others waiting for him to say something.  Finally, he turned around and looked each of them in the eye, lingering on Suki, who looked as pale as ever, and unsure, her hands held stiffly at her sides. She studied his gaze, and he knew from the expression on her face that she knew what he was thinking. She nodded.

“So?” he said, turning to the others. “How do we do this?”


	8. Chapter 8

Suki sat on the edge of Zuko’s chair as he hunched over a letter, his brush moving rapidly. The line of his shoulders was stiff and his jaw was clenching and unclenching, little white streaks showing in his cheeks.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked him and he glanced up at her, studying her face for a long moment. “Can you trust him?”

“You know him as well as I do, Suki. General Mak is a good man, and loyal, too.”

“He didn’t tell you about the Smoke Demons until he absolutely had to,” she pointed out, and Zuko shifted uncomfortably in place. “What if he’s the one helping them infiltrate your army?”

“If General Mak wanted to take over and depose me, he could have done it years ago. And he’s had plenty of access to me. If he wanted me dead, I would be,” he said in a whisper, and then glanced back at Azula, who was speaking to Sokka in an undertone.

Suki forced her gaze away and looked back at him. “I hope you’re right.”

Zuko nodded wryly. “I hope I am too. And I hope my sister really isn’t out to kill me, too.”

“You think she’s lying?”

“I think Azula’s reasons for trying to save my life are non-existent, but the fact that Sokka trusts her…” he licked his lips and glanced back at the two of them. “If anything, I know that I can trust _him._ Or at least I hope I can…what with everything…”

He met her gaze and she understood what he was thinking perfectly. Sokka and Azula had obviously heard the rumors. There were loaded questions practically swimming in the air between the four of them, so thick and knotted that they might never be properly unraveled.

Guilt was making a pit in her stomach. It felt like a live coal was lodged somewhere behind her heart, and whenever she looked at Sokka, it just got worse. _He knows. He knows about me and Zuko… Or at least he thinks he does…_

But even though the rumors about them sleeping together weren’t true…wasn’t it just as bad that they had kissed? That she clearly had feelings for him? She couldn’t deny that she did. What could she say to Sokka, how could she explain?

Then there was the fact that, once she’d gotten over her initial shock at his sudden appearance, the anger she’d felt at his abandonment had come back on her. She couldn’t stop it. She was angry. And he knew it.

What she really wanted—needed—was a moment alone so she could collect her thoughts and work through things. With all of the planning for the fake assassination attempt at the ball, she hadn’t had time to breathe, let alone think of the tangle her love life had become.

“Just deny it,” Zuko said, so softly she nearly didn’t hear him. “Just deny it, Suki and if he asks, it was me. You didn’t do anything wrong. It was all me. My mistake to make.”

Startled, Suki met Zuko’s gaze, and saw the plea there, the hidden sadness, the acceptance. “Zuko…”

Zuko ignored her, putting the finishing touches on the letter. He sealed it up as she reached out, touching his shoulder. Zuko stood and shot her a sad, tight-lipped smile. “It’s not your fault. None of it is.”

“I kissed you back,” she whispered, feeling desperate, even though she wasn’t sure why. Here was her out. She could lay blame on his doorstep if it came to that. But what kind of person would that make her? A liar, that’s what. Zuko _had_ kissed her first…but she had kissed him back. Would have _kept_ kissing him if they hadn’t been interrupted. Surely, Zuko knew that.

“He doesn’t need to know that. I won’t get between you, I won’t do that. The rumors are already out there…but I won’t cause you anymore pain. Not if I can help it,” he said and she felt his hand gently brush hers, then slide away. He turned on her before she could protest, and said to Sokka and Azula, quietly arguing in the corner of the large room, “I’ve explained everything to the General.”

“I’m not sure you can trust him,” Sokka said, walking toward them as Azula glanced at Suki and then toward the window. Suki didn’t miss the annoyed twist of her lips. It was good to know that _some_ things hadn’t changed over the years. Azula still hated her, if nothing else.

“We have to take the chance,” Zuko said. “The letter won’t reach him until after the ball, so even if he’s the one orchestrating the infiltration of the army, alerting him that we know of the plot won’t hurt us. If he’s going to attack us using my own army, I’d rather we forced his hand now than wait for a sneak attack. And if he’s not in on it, then I want him aware of the agents as soon as possible. We can’t wait on this.”

“I can’t fault that logic,” Sokka said, but then gestured to the letter. “And what about the letter? We don’t know if your mail is being watched or not. How are you going to guarantee he gets it?”

Zuko thought a moment and then smiled. “I have a courier. We can trust him.”

“I told you, we can’t trust anyone in the palace.”

“We can trust Wataa. He’s the person I trust to carry my letters to mother and back,” Zuko said, glancing at Azula, who had stiffened at Sokka’s side. Sokka didn’t look at her, but something in his body language changed, and Azula reacted to it. She nodded stiffly, but said nothing. “He also can’t read.”

“He’s a little on the slow side, actually,” Suki said. “He’s pretty harmless and no one really looks at him twice.”

“If you say so,” Azula said easily as Suki held out her hand for the letter.

“I’ll take it to him,” she said. “And then I’m coming right back to guard you tonight. Just because we know who’s supposed to assassinate you doesn’t mean someone else won’t try.”

“No, you need to sleep. Send two of the girls.”

“I told you, we can’t trust them,” Sokka insisted, but Zuko shook his head.

“The Kyoshi Warriors are all my trusted friends. I know them. They’d never betray me,” Zuko said with some finality. He turned to Suki. “I’ll be okay.”

“I know you will be,” she said and glanced at Sokka. “You should probably leave before they get here. Azula…”

“You can trust me alone with my own brother, you know. It’s not like I’m here to assassinate him and take the throne, after all,” she snorted and then glanced at Sokka. “Be careful.”

Sokka touched her hand briefly. “I will.” He turned back to Suki, but she avoided his gaze and turned to Zuko, who was looking slightly pale and seemed to be avoiding her eye.

 _There’s a lot of that going around_ , she thought tiredly. She left the suite, letter in hand, and walked down the stairs, through the hot halls. The sun had gone down, but the heat of the day lingered. The air was heavy, like walking through soup. She found Wataa in the kitchens, where his mother worked as a cook. He agreed to deliver the letter and promised he wouldn’t let anyone else look at it. She had to trust that he was true to his word.

That task done, she walked through the halls toward the wing of the palace where she and the Kyoshi Warriors had their suites. Not being servants in the truest sense, and not being part of the Royal Guard, their quarters were located just off of the palace’s main guest suites, on the second floor. As she walked through the hallway, she passed a clump of giggling young women, who stopped and stared at her as she passed.

“That’s her. The dirt kingdom whore he’s been sleeping with,” one of the girls, who was wearing an orange blossom in her hair, said with a simpering pout.

“Ewww… She’s not even pretty,” the tallest one said, curling her lips back over her perfect teeth.

“Why does she wear all that makeup? Is she hiding something or what?” another said.

“Probably something gross, like a scar.”

“She probably has acne. That pound of makeup she has to wear probably clogs the pores. Doesn’t it, Ugly?”

A chorus of laughter rang through the hallway. Her shoulders stiffened as she stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to face them. “Excuse me?”

“You heard us, slut.”

“You must be so depressed that Zuko’s kicking you out of his bed for a newer, younger woman. After all, it’s not like he can marry a dirt kingdom peasant!”

“Aww…look how sad it looks,” the tallest pouted, making tear tracks on her face.

“Why don’t you go home to the dirt farm you call home, Dirt Girl?”

Suki’s temper flared out of control and before she knew it, she’d pulled the knife out of her belt. She tossed it across the room and it landed with a small _thwack!_ in the wall, inches from their heads. It vibrated in place, the orange blossom from the girl’s hair pinned to the wall. Suki swallowed, realizing what she’d done.

The girls looked shocked, especially the girl who had been wearing the flower now pinned to the wall.

“You animal!”

Suki pulled her fan and stepped forward menacingly. “Don’t fuck with me.”

“Oh no! The Dirt Girl is rapid! RUN!” one of them said, showing obvious fear at Suki’s threat. Her fear infected the others and they took off down the corridor away from her, holding their long silken skirts in their hands to keep from tripping.

“MY FATHER WILL HEAR ABOUT THIS!” the tallest girl shouted over her shoulder.

“GO AHEAD AND TELL HIM! I’M SURE HE ALREADY KNOWS YOU’RE A BITCH!” Suki snarled after her as they rounded a corner and disappeared. She growled out a curse word and then walked over to the wall and wrenched her knife out of the plaster. The flower fell to the floor and she stamped on it for good measure, feeling wronged, her nerves frayed.

She’d thought she’d come to terms with the rumors swirling around her and Zuko, and the way all of the noblewomen were treating her, but clearly she had some issues to resolve. Regret swelled in her. She’d probably just attacked some highborn lord’s daughter, after all. She was probably going to end up paying for her outburst.

“Fuck it. Fuck everything,” she mumbled to herself. Getting even a little bit of revenge against them had felt far too good. Everything in her life seemed to be spinning out of control after all. At least she could still stick up for herself.

Zuko’s words rang in her ears. Should she have denied it, like he’d asked her to? She knew the answer to that. And so had Zuko.

Still feeling raw and pissed off, she knocked on Chao-Ahn and Xiuying’s doors and sent them to guard Zuko for the night. No matter what Sokka said, she knew that she could trust them. With the exception of Ty Lee, she’d known them all since childhood and they were loyal to Zuko.

That done, she let herself into her bedroom, and in a fit of pique, slammed the door behind her satisfyingly hard. She threw the lock home and sank back against it, breathing in, trying to calm herself. So much had happened tonight. She didn’t know how to process it.

“You left without saying goodbye,” Sokka said shortly, suddenly framed in her bathroom doorway. She jumped and automatically pulled the knife from her belt. Sokka eyed it with amusement. “Relax, it’s me. Remember?”

“Sorry. I’m just not used to your new look,” she said, eying the black flames tattooed on his muscular arms. He looked at them, bemused, his finger tracing the outline of a flame licking up his left arm.

“Don’t worry, they’re just henna.”

“Right. So…how do you keep getting in here?” she said, ignoring him, disgruntled at the sudden invasion and his casualness. The encounter with the noblewomen hadn’t helped matters. She had a feeling their reunion wasn’t going to be a happy one. So much had happened in the months since they’d seen each other last. And so much had gone unspoken already.

“Your bathroom window’s unlatched,” he said, jerking his thumb behind him, “and there’s a tree down in the courtyard outside, which butts up against the stables where the tunnel ends up. Climbed up and in.”

She made a note of that for future reference, as she walked across the room and tossed her knife and belt onto the bed.

“You shouldn’t have risked coming here. What if someone had seen you?”

“It’s dark, no one saw me. Besides, we need to talk. We didn’t have much time before…what with everything…”

Suki glanced down at her hands and then licked her lips. “Yeah.”

“I…uh…I missed you.”

“Did you?” she shot at him before she could stop herself. She saw the hurt flash across Sokka’s face, followed by the tightening of his jaw.

“So I wasn’t imagining it. You _are_ angry with me,” Sokka said, walking into the room and perching on the edge of her desk. He glanced down at the crumpled up replies to his letter that she had started and then scribbled out. He toed one on the floor.

“What makes you think that?” she said lightly, though anyone could have read the tightness in her voice, the bitterness.

“Because I know you, Sook. I know when you’re pissed off at me. You’re really bad at hiding it, you know.”

“I know,” she clipped and then ran a hand through her hair. Sokka shifted in place and then sighed.

“Well, you should be mad at me. I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Suki shot at him, eyebrow arching as she looked up at him. “Abandoning me for nearly a year? Making me feel completely worthless? Like I was so unimportant to you that even writing a simple letter was beneath you? For driving me absolutely insane wondering what I might have done to make you treat me like I didn’t matter to you at all? Is that why you’re sorry?”

The anger she’d been holding in, anger she’d thought she had gotten over months ago when she’d decided to stop writing him altogether, came bubbling back to the surface with a vengeance. It was like a floodgate and she had no way of stopping it. Sokka stared at her, brows drawn down low, mouth pressed into a thin line.

“I never meant to hurt you. I swear.”

“But you did.”

“I’m so sorry. I wish I’d done everything differently. I’d planned on writing to you once we got to a safe place, but the opportunity never came. We were always being watched and Tazeo had absolutely no reason to be sending letters to the Fire Lord’s bodyguard. I could have jeopardized everything we were working for. It might have gotten all of us killed. I wish you could understand what it’s been like…” Sokka said imploringly.

“You think I don’t get it? Actually I _do_ understand _why_ you didn’t write. I get it, Sokka. I really do. That’s why I feel guilty about being so angry with you. Because I know that I shouldn’t be. I have every reason to forgive you for making me think you’d stopped caring. But I just can’t. You hurt me, Sokka…and I can’t seem to get past it. I’m grateful for everything you’re doing for Zuko, but the more I think about all those months, the angrier I get.”

“And it all comes back to him, doesn’t it?” Sokka said in a measured voice, making chills ripple down her spine. She remembered the knowing look in Azula’s eyes, the pointed remarks. And Zuko’s words, the plea in his gaze, the sadness in his voice as he’d asked her to deny it, to lay the blame on him.

She bit down on the inside of her lip and then said, “What?”

“Zuko. He’s all that matters to you, isn’t he?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“You _know_ what I’m saying. I've heard things. In the palace, the city, everywhere. Even back home. Rumors about you and Zuko."

They stared at each other, the words unspoken between them. Her heart thundered in her chest and her palms felt sweaty all of a sudden.

“And you believed them?” she challenged him, tears hovering in her eyes. She refused to give in. Anger steeled her nerves. The words of the noblewomen echoed in her head.

Sokka smirked at her a little and then the expression faded and his whole face shut down. He stared at his hands and said in a quiet voice that shook a little, “I don’t know. But I think it says a lot that hearing you’ve been sleeping with him didn’t surprise me at all.”

It was like a slap in the face, hard, painful and harsh. “Why would think that? Do you really think I would cheat on you like that? Do you think so little of me?”

“NO!” he burst out, standing and approaching her, but she backed up a step, holding out her hand to stop him. “I don’t know what I think. But I know how you are with him. Every time you and I are together, you bring him up. Zuko this, Zuko that. ‘Oh, Zuko needs me, Sokka!’ It’s like you don’t even see how you are! You run to him all of the time. He’s the most important person in your life, don’t deny it. And don’t give me that ‘I’m his bodyguard, it’s my job’ crap. It’s more than that.”

She had no defense. She opened her mouth, but snapped it closed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do,” he said, shaking his head. He laughed a little, but it was a bitter sound. “I mean, I kinda always thought you had a crush on him or something, but I wasn’t too worried about it. I knew you loved me and that he was in love with Mai. But…”

“But what?”

“When they broke up I just had this feeling. I just knew eventually he was going to look at you the way you looked at him and that would be it. I’d lose you. I wasn’t wrong. The last time you were in Republic City I could tell something was different between the two of you. The way you looked at him… It was like I wasn’t there at all.”

“I don’t even know what to say to that,” she said, wiping at her face with her sleeve.

“Tell me I’m wrong, Suki. Tell me I was imagining it. Tell me those fucking rumors are completely untrue,” he said as he reached out, grasping her shoulders. She winced in pain as her wound twinged.

Suki licked her lips, her chin trembling as the tears made tracks in her white makeup.

What could she say? They both knew he was right, at least about there being something between her and Zuko. That he had noticed shocked her, when she hadn’t consciously been aware of it herself until a few months ago. Shame welled in her. Guilt. The anger she felt at him faded a bit. What must he have been thinking all of these months? What kind of rumors had he heard? No wonder he believed them. No wonder he hadn’t written her.

She opened her mouth, thinking of denying it, all of it. Hiding from her shame completely. She thought of Zuko, of the look in his eyes as he’d asked her to deny it. She couldn’t help but remember the way her body had felt for days after kissing Zuko. Hot, unfocused, aroused, yearning. She had wanted more. She still did.

There was no denying it. That wasn’t fair to Zuko, or herself. Or Sokka.

“We kissed. Once. That was it. We aren’t sleeping together, I swear. I would never do that to you!” she said, wiping at her eyes, smearing her makeup. “I’m so sorry…please believe me…”

“I do,” he said, taking her hands. “You have feelings for him.”

“I don’t know…” Her voice was small, tears in her eyes as she stared at him, trying to find the man she loved in the face of the stranger before her. Everything was confusing, and she felt fear thrill through her. She hadn’t expected this confrontation so soon after leaving Zuko’s suite. She had no defense ready, no idea what she was doing, what she was feeling, other than anger and fear and guilt. “Yes. Yes, I have feelings for him. I didn’t mean for it to happen. It just did…”

Sokka pulled away from her, nodding, tears in his eyes as well. He swallowed hard, and turned to her desk. He kicked it so hard it scraped across the wooden floor with a loud noise and came to a stop a few feet from its original position. She jumped and clamped her hand over her mouth, watching as Sokka paced the floor of her room like a caged tigerdillo.

“Sokka…”

He looked at her sharply. “Do you still love me?”

The floor dropped out from under her. Hadn’t she been asking herself that very same question for months now? She knew the answer, and as confusing as it was, she knew it was the truth. “I… Yes.”

Sokka licked his lips and crossed to the window. He put his hands down on the sill and hunched his shoulders. He took a few deep breaths. "I cheated on you with Azula."

The words seemed to reverberate through the air, pinging between them like a haunting echo. She wiped at her eyes and finally found her voice.

“Are you trying to hurt me?” she whispered, though the shock she should have been feeling didn’t even register.

“No, I don't want to hurt you, but I am," Sokka said, pushing away from the window and turning to face her. "You were honest with me, and I respect you too much to lie. You deserve the truth, Suki."

"The truth is that you cheated on me! You slept with her! And here you were getting angry with me for kissing Zuko! How dare you?!"

"You're right...I had no right to be angry. I was...Spirits, I was more angry with myself and I was taking it out on you. I need you to know that I didn't have sex with her. That's not..." he started and then stopped. "We kissed and some other stuff happened. We came close to sleeping together, but she kind of um...she stopped us. I would have done it, though. I wanted to do it. It's not right, and I will never be able to take it back, but you deserved to know. I'm sorry."

Suki sniffed back tears and wiped at her nose with her sleeve. She sank down on the edge of the bed, trying to work through his admission, but she just felt oddly numb. "Do you have feelings for her?"

Sokka rubbed at the odd scar on his forehead and then said softly, "Suki, I'm in love with her."

She stared at him for a long moment and then laughed a little. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. I'm sorry... It's not like I don't still love you too. And you're in love with Zuko, so... Things are pretty fucked up between us, aren't they?"

"Yeah, they are," Suki said, tears flowing down her cheeks in hot rivers. “Fucked up doesn't even cover it, Sokka.”

She had been imagining her reunion with Sokka for months. There had been a time when she’d wanted nothing more than a joyful reunion full of kisses and smiles, but over the months of his silence, the scenarios in her head had started to become fights, and in them she was the one victorious, triumphant in her righteousness and abandonment, the injured party.

She hadn’t been prepared for this, though. For tears and guilt and the loss of everything she had ever known. The man before her was a stranger, and it wasn’t just his disguise. Sokka had changed, hardened, become someone she knew nothing about. She was sure he was thinking the same thing. How betrayed he must feel, how hurt to know that she had feelings for Zuko, one of his best friends…

If it was anything like how she felt right now, knowing that he had cheated on her with Azula, that he was in love with her... Well, it wasn't a good feeling.

"I don't think we can fix this," she said softly.

“Yeah,” he said heavily, sitting down next to her. “Maybe you’re right.”

“I wish I weren’t,” she said honestly. “I wish we could go back. It was simpler then.”

“Was it?” he asked, eyebrows lifting. “With you here, and me there…it never felt simple to me. I always missed you. And those few days you’d come to visit, or I’d come here, every couple of months were…the best. But they never lasted. You always left. Or I left. Didn’t matter. It always felt like we were reaching out to each other, but we just couldn’t connect, you know? Maybe this was always going to happen? Maybe being in a relationship with someone who isn’t there wasn’t fair to either of us.”

Something stirred in her memory; Zuko standing on the balcony at sunset, looking sadly into the distance. She whispered softly, “It just wasn’t enough, was it? For either of us.”

“I wanted it to be.”

“Me too.”

Tears swam in Sokka's eyes. "I didn't... Dammit, I thought seeing you again would make me forget everything that's happened in the last ten months. That we would be right back where we were, like nothing had changed. That things would make sense and I'd just know that you were the only woman for me and that I would do anything to keep you."

"But that's not what you're feeling?"

"I don't know what I'm feeling, Suki. Mostly I just feel sick to my stomach. I fucked up...and I can't help but think that this would be easier if I didn't still love you, but I do. Despite everything, I know that's true."

"I still love you too," she admitted, though it cost her. She didn't want to admit that right now. She wanted to be angry with him, but she was just so tired. "But it's not enough."

"No... No, it's not enough," Sokka sighed. "You're in love with Zuko, aren't you?"

"I don't know."

Sokka glanced at her and huffed air out of his nose, his mouth pulling into a bitter, tight-lipped smile. "Yeah, you are. I've known it for a long time. Probably before the two of you did."

"Did that make it easier? Falling for Azula?"

He hung his head. "I don't know. Maybe? It's not your fault, though. The heart wants what it wants, I guess."

"I'm sorry I hurt you," she said and she meant it.

"I'm the one who's sorry. I hurt you too," he replied and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in for a hug that was strangely awkward with the ghosts of Azula and Zuko between them.

“Please don’t try and kill Zuko for real tomorrow night,” she said into his neck. He laughed deeply and kissed her forehead.

“The opportunity _is_ feeling a little too good to resist at the moment…” he said with a rumble, and she pulled away from him, glaring at him. He grinned and reached out, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I think I’ll just go have a talk with him instead.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Probably hit him.”

“Don’t!”

“He kissed my girlfriend! He has it coming!” he said, standing up and walking toward the bathroom door and the unlatched window. She followed him, catching his arm and spinning him around.

“Sokka!” she said with a watery laugh. His arms went around her and he pulled her against him. Her eyes closed and she breathed in his familiar scent. It took her a moment to realize she could smell perfume on him. Azula’s perfume.

She clung to him tighter and his mouth brushed her cheek. They breathed together, holding each other, swaying in place. After a long moment, he whispered, “I don’t want to let go.”

More tears made her voice shaky as pushed her face against his chest. “Then don’t.”

“Don’t tempt me, Sook.”

“I’m not tempt—“ she started, but he cut her off with a kiss.

It was everything she remembered. Solid, sweet, playful. All Sokka. Memory lashed at her, of other nights, other kisses, ones without end. Of his body against hers, his hands, his laughter vibrating against her stomach, his warmth wrapped around her, keeping her safe, holding her tight.

His mouth tucked against hers and she found herself kissing him back for everything she was worth. Her hand wove into his long hair as his arms crushed her to his chest. He kissed her until she couldn’t breathe and her head was buzzing. When he pulled back, she felt him take an unsteady breath, his forehead against hers.

“That just made this about a thousand times harder,” he mumbled.

“Tell me about it,” she said and then pulled out of his arms. He let her go, his hands slowly slipping off of her waist. He looked gutted.

“I should leave.”

“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea,” she said in that hatefully small voice. Her fingers touched her lips.

“I’ll see you tomorrow night at nine-fifteen sharp. Be ready.”

“Be careful,” she said, following him into the bathroom. He glanced out at the courtyard, seemed satisfied at its emptiness, and then heaved himself out onto the nearest branch.

“You too,” he said, stopping. He leaned back into the window and kissed her solidly on the lips. He pulled back and grinned at her, reminding her so much of the boy she’d fallen in love with all of those years ago. Her heart ached painfully. “Bye, Suki.”

She didn’t say anything, just watched as he deftly climbed down the tree in the dark and headed off in the direction of the stables. When he disappeared into the shadows, she closed and locked her window, and then sat down on the edge of the tub.

Her hands were shaking. She couldn’t process what had just happened, what she was feeling. She had been so confused before their talk, and now… Now everything felt that much worse. She touched her lips, remembering how it had felt, kissing him.

She knew, without a doubt, that if he’d pressed, she wouldn’t have stopped there. She would have slept with him, despite her lingering anger, the hurt, the guilt, all of it. Because he was Sokka, and her body still craved his and her heart—treacherous thing that it was—ached for him.

“Did we just make a mistake?” she asked the empty room.

The silence merely mocked her.


	9. Chapter 9

Zuko’s stomach was in knots and his hands kept clenching into sweaty fists, pulling the stitches Nam-Kyu had carefully sewn into his hand. The wound was healing, but it ached, reminding him of the image of Suki with an assassin’s knife at her throat every time he flexed his fingers.

 _Don’t think about her_ , he chided himself as he paced across the carpet. _Don’t think about the fact that Sokka probably went to her room the minute he left. Don’t. You have no right._

His thoughts ran in jumbled little circles until he couldn’t stand it any longer. He forced his mind to go over the events of the day instead. His sister’s sudden reappearance in his life had been even more shocking than Sokka’s. He didn’t know what to think of her. She had seemed stable at first, but that had quickly proven to be a front, one that had been ripped down easily with only a few words.

 _It was the orphanage that triggered her,_ he thought as he stopped pacing and put his hands down flat on his desk. He’d found the written reports he’d been given about Rinchaka Falls last month. The details were gruesome. All but two of the children had died. The whole village had either been destroyed in the explosion or gone up in flames. Reports of two suspects getting away into the forest were sketchy at best. A third, unconfirmed and unidentified suspect had been found near the epicenter of the explosion with a slit throat. Witnesses had stated they’d seen the murder take place, but no one had been identified.

He didn’t know what to make of _that_ particular detail, just as he had no idea what to make of his sister’s reaction to the whole thing. The idea of Azula being concerned for the safety of children was incongruous and didn’t match his memories of her at all. She was such a stranger to him now, that he couldn’t even guess her motivations.

He was still trying to come to terms with the idea that Azula was attempting to protect his life, not to mention the fact that she had convinced _Sokka_ to help her. That Sokka seemed to trust her implicitly made his head spin. There were too many reasons why Azula would benefit from his assassination, and her reasons for protecting him were thin.

There was something she wasn’t telling him, but he had no idea what that was. He knew that he’d have to trust her for now. Or, if not her, then Sokka.

The two of them had seemed…close. A nasty part of his mind wondered exactly _how_ close they’d gotten, but he shoved it away out of hand. The whole idea was ridiculous.

Worry knotted his gut even more as he thought of the state of his army, if Sokka and Azula’s intel about the Smoke Demons was to be believed. He hoped that General Mak was on his side, and that the infiltrators would be ousted. His hands felt tied though, stuck in a game he didn’t want to play, waiting for the hidden piece on the board to show itself. If they were right and his enemy was someone already in the palace, then that person could be anyone. Even someone close to him.

“Damn,” he said, pushing away from his desk and pacing again. There was nothing he could do about the Smoke Demons at the moment but worry and go back over the plan the four of them had devised. His mind turned back to Suki instead.

This time his thoughts refused to leave her. The panicked look in her eyes, the sadness and the regret as she’d taken his letter and all but ran out of his suite were haunting him. With Sokka’s return had come a hard punch of reality. Suki was in love with Sokka, not him, and he had to face it, deal with it, and move on.

_This changes nothing. The kiss changed nothing. She was always his, and I overstepped. It’s my fault. I’m the one who fell in love with her and I’m the one who has to get over it._

He had no doubt that Suki and Sokka would patch things up now that they were together again.  Hadn’t he told her to deny it? Hadn’t he tried to make it right, despite the pain he’d felt at the thought of giving her up?

_She isn’t even yours to give up._

He flexed his aching hand and fought the urge to punch the wall. He’d done that too many times the past few days though, and his skinned knuckles were proof of that. Exhaustion crawled across his overheated skin. What he needed was a good night’s rest. He’d deal with everything in the morning; the Smoke Demons, his sister, the ball he had never wanted, and his broken heart.

He was just walking into his bedroom when the wall beneath his tapestry slid open with a scrape of stone on stone. He found himself staring at Sokka, who looked pale beneath his fake tattoos. There was an indecipherable look on his face as he stepped into the room. Zuko’s gaze narrowed on the red smudge of paint on his lips.

He had no doubt where that paint had come from. Pain burst in him like fireworks, followed swiftly by crippling jealousy. He felt fire in his hands. It wanted to break free, to rise out of him like a flaming tempest and scorch everything, even his friend. _Especially_ his friend.

The anger he’d been harboring towards Sokka suddenly seemed like a ravening beast, incapable of being tamed.

“You know, I’m really going to have to put a lock on that door,” he said roughly as Sokka hitched a little smile on his smudged lips.

“I knocked, but I don’t think you heard me,” Sokka said slowly, and then closed the hidden door. The seam blended in perfectly with the marble, the tapestry hiding any flaws in the design. No wonder he hadn’t known it was there. It was time to switch bedrooms; he didn’t feel at all safe knowing that it was there. “I just left Suki’s room. We had a long talk about some things.”

“Oh?” He had a feeling they’d done more than talk. The proof of that was all over Sokka’s mouth. The fire within him grew hotter.

“I think you and I need to talk, Zuko.”

Zuko stared at him and then bit nastily. “About what?”

Sokka’s fist smashed into Zuko’s face so fast and hard that he hadn’t seen it coming—though he should have. Zuko’s head snapped back and he stumbled, vision blurred, the taste of blood in his mouth.

“You _know_ what,” Sokka said bluntly as Zuko’s hand went to his aching jaw. He was going to bruise spectacularly. It was nothing less than he deserved.

“You abandoned her,” Zuko said in a voice that was too calm for the rage beneath his surface. He wanted to hit Sokka back, but he knew he wasn’t in the right on this one, no matter the reasons for his anger.  

“I was saving your life.”

“You broke her heart.”

“And you were there to pick up the pieces, huh? You ought to be thanking me,” Sokka said bitterly. They glared at one another in open challenge. Zuko broke first, guilt and anger swooping through him in a crippling wave.

“The rumors are not true, whatever you might have heard,” he said after a moment, refusing to flinch away from Sokka’s unwavering gaze, even as he wiped blood from the corner of his mouth onto his sleeve.

“She told me you guys kissed,” Sokka said bluntly, going straight for the heart of the matter. Zuko almost admired his forthrightness. Sokka has never been one for pretense. Zuko dropped his hand and swallowed a mouthful of bitter-tasting blood.  

“Yes,” he said, after a long moment. There was no use denying it, after all. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it. I hurt her, and you, and I disregarded both of your feelings. I don’t have any excuse for what I did. Don’t be angry with her. She had nothing to do with it. _I_ kissed _her._ ”

“That’s not how Suki tells it. Seems to me the two of you got pretty close while I was off trying to save your life,” Sokka said, though the anger in his voice had lessened.

“Sokka…”

“I’m not really surprised. I just never thought you’d have the guts to make a move on her.”

Anger flared in him again. “I didn’t make a move on her. It just happened. She and I…”

“Are you in love with her?”

 It wasn’t a question, not really. Zuko took a none-too-steadying breath and looked down at his bandaged hand. His whole face ached from Sokka’s punch.

“What I feel doesn’t matter,” he mumbled. “Suki is your girlfriend, a fact that I forgot in a moment of duress. It will not happen again and I apologize for overstepping my boundaries.”

But Sokka didn’t seem to be listening to him. “We broke up.”

“What?” Zuko blinked slowly, the words seeping in, filtering through the guilt and confusion. His head came up and saw the look on Sokka’s face. He looked as confused as Zuko felt.

“You heard me. We broke up.” Sokka sank down into a chair against the wall and put his head in his hands. He looked bone-deep weary, and the muscles in his back seemed stiff and unyielding.

Zuko didn’t know what to say to that. It felt like he’d been hit with a bolt of lightning. Or like he’d been punched again. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault…”

“You know, Zuko, I realize you’re the Fire Lord and that you take your responsibilities pretty seriously, but not everything that happens on this fucking planet is your fault. You can be pretty self-centered sometimes, you know that?”

“Uh…” He had nothing useful to say to that, so he merely sank down onto the edge of his bed and stared at Sokka, waiting for….well, he wasn’t sure _what_ he was waiting for him to say.

Sokka scrubbed his hands over his face and glanced up at him. “I fucked up. She was angry with me. Still is, probably. And with good reason. Like you said, I left her for nearly a year. At first I thought about her a lot, you know? Every day. And I felt so bad that I hadn’t told her what I was doing, but there was never an opportunity to write to her. Then after a few months, it all kind of faded, you know? There was just the job, staying alive, playing the part. And Azula… _Azula_ …” He trailed off, unable to finish the thought, whatever it was. The look on his face was tortured, pensive. He took a deep breath. “Suki didn’t fit into that world, into the person I had to become. I _forgot_ about how much I was probably hurting her. And sometimes all I could think about was the way it had been before I’d left. How weird things were starting to get between us. How distant we both were. How much I felt like I was losing her…”

“Sokka…”

Sokka’s head came up and he looked at Zuko rawly. There was grief in his eyes, but also acceptance. “And it’s not like I don’t still have feelings for her. I _do._ Kissing her again, that was… _incredible._ We’ve still got sparks and we both know it. Maybe we could fix it. _Maybe._ But… I’m _not_ the man she fell in love with anymore, Zuko. I couldn’t tell her that. I wanted to, but I _couldn’t._ She wouldn’t understand it. Maybe I don’t understand it. Maybe I…”

He trailed off again and rubbed at his forehead, hunching over in the chair.

Zuko didn’t think the other man realized what he was saying. He seemed exhausted, as if he’d gone months without sleep. Sokka wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand and smiled sadly at the red paint on his skin.

“She didn’t fight it, breaking up. She knows as well as I do that things are broken between us. I fucked up. She fucked up. And she has feelings for you, something I’ve known for a _very_ long time. It was just a crush once, but when I abandoned her, it became something more. Didn’t it? She turned to you. Of course she did. I can’t blame her. I knew it the moment I saw the two of you together. You were there for her when I wasn’t.” He seemed to be rambling, more to himself than to Zuko.

“Why are you telling me this?” Zuko asked quietly after a long pause. Sokka dropped his hand and wiped it on his dark pants.

“Because you’re my friend.”

“Still?” he said delicately, arching a brow.

Sokka laughed a little. “Oh, don’t think I’m not pissed off at you.”

“I think that punch said it all.”

“Yeah well, you kissed my girlfriend, Zuko. You had that coming.”

“I know I did,” he said, touching his tender, bruising jaw. He had no idea how he was going to explain _that_ to people. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you broke up. I’m sorry for everything.”

Mostly I'm just pissed at myself. I'm such a hypocrite. I've done far worse than she did kissing you and I'm angry with myself for it and taking it out on everyone else," Sokka said, glancing at the window. It was well past midnight and the crescent moon was smiling in the sky. Sokka looked sad, and far older than his twenty-two years as he peered out the window. "I'm in love with your sister."

It took his words a full minute to sink in. And finally Zuko blinked at him, taken aback. “You're in what with who now?”

Sokka pushed his scarred hands into his loose hair and squeezed his eyes shut tightly. “When did things get so fucked up?”

“Are you…? You and…” Zuko thought about the way Sokka and Azula had been with each other, and the nasty suspicions came tumbling back in on him. He’d never seen his sister like that with anyone, not even Ty Lee. “Wait. Wait, wait, wait… Are you sleeping with my _SISTER?!_ Did you cheat on Suki?”

Sokka met his gaze and then quickly looked away.

“No. But we came very, very close. More than once,” he said heavily. “I told Suki about it. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t lie to her. I think she was in shock. She didn’t say much. I just feel… I don’t know how I feel. “

Zuko felt his hands heating up again. The urge to punch Sokka came over him again, but it was for an entirely different reason now. The protective feeling swelled, confusing him even more. He’d never before felt the need to protect his sister, who had proven time and again that she didn’t need it. He didn’t like the feeling and he didn’t know where it was coming from.

“Do you regret breaking up with Suki?” he asked evenly.

“Yes. And no.” Sokka sounded miserable.

"So what's going on between you and my sister? Is she in love with you too?" he asked carefully, trying to keep his anger at bay.

“I wish I knew,” Sokka said honestly. “She’s a complicated woman. And sometimes I don’t think _she_ knows what she wants. We saved each other’s lives out there, Zuko. We did things that I can’t even repeat. And somewhere in there, she got under my skin. I let her in and I can’t get her out. She scares the living shit out of me.”

“What happened in Rinchaka Falls? And why did she freak out like that?”

Sokka’s eyes took on a panicked expression as he cut them toward Zuko and back to the floor. “It’s a long story.”

“I have time.”

Sokka glanced at him and then down at the floor. Then he launched into the story, without preamble or pretense. Zuko listened as he explained how he and Azula had been charged with robbing a Fire Nation Army warehouse. They were supposed to meet another of the Demons, a man called the Fire Bug, but the warehouse had exploded before they’d even gotten there, and the whole town had gone up within a matter of minutes, including the orphanage, which was not far from the warehouse. He listened, feeling sick to his stomach, as Sokka, trembling with memories best left forgotten, explained how he had tried to save the children. And how he’d only managed to get two of them free of the structure before it had been completely engulfed.

“And what did Azula do?”

“She went catatonic for a moment. She does that sometimes…just _leaves._ After I pulled the second child from the building, she lost it. She was crying, screaming, trying to run inside. I stopped her. I knew it was hopeless. She was trying to Firebend, to stop it, but it was too late. There was no one left alive to save. That didn’t matter to her, Zuko. She tried. She fought me and tried to go inside. I managed to pin her down on the ground just as the whole structure collapsed. I think I got through to her. She stopped fighting, but she was…gone again.”

“You saved her life.”

“It broke her. She was _crying_ , Zuko. _Azula!_ She tried to help them and she couldn’t. I tried to get through to her, but all she could say was that it wasn’t her fault. I knew she was right. It was the Fire Bug. He hadn’t waited for us. The plan hadn’t been to blow up the warehouse, just rob it blind. I should have known what he would have done. His reputation preceded him, after all. The whole fucking town was burning to the ground. And it was his fault.”

“What did you do?”

Sokka’s face turned into the light and there was a hard expression there, ruthless, remorseless. “What do you think I did?”

“He survived the explosion?”

“Yes, but not long after,” Sokka said and then pulled an expression that was more grimace than smile. Zuko remembered the reports about the third suspect’s slit throat. A shiver went through him. “Some of the villagers who were trying to fight the fires saw me slit his throat. I didn’t care. I barely managed to get Azula out of there. We gave the soldiers the slip in the forest a few miles from the village.”

"You saved her life."

"She saved mine more than once, Zuko. There are things...things that Azula had gone through that... There's more to her than her mental illness, Zuko. You have no idea. Watching that orphanage go up nearly destroyed us both, but she took it harder than I even thought at first. It reminded her of something else that happened, another time when she'd been unable to stop a fire."

"What do you mean?"

Sokka shook his head. "It's not my place to say. It took her months to tell me, and even then she wouldn't tell me all of it. I know enough to fill in the gaps....and it's bad. Bad enough that she has nightmares about it every night. She's been through a lot, your sister. She has panic attacks, as you saw. And there's more...other things. She's not well, and I've been trying to help her for months, but... She needs more help than I can give her, no matter how much it costs me to admit that. It seems I'm never enough."

Sokka sounded defeated at that, and it looked like the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry, I, I didn't know."

"I'm sorry, I, I didn't know."

"It's not me you should apologize to," Sokka said and then sat back in his chair. "She cares more about you than she lets on, you know."

"Is that why she's doing this?"

"She's doing this because she has nothing else, Zuko. She was alone, for so many years and she needed something to focus on, some kind of reality to hold her together."

"I think you understand her better than I ever have," Zuko admitted. "You really love her."

"Yeah...well... She got under my skin and I couldn't get her out. She scares the shit out of me. I was a goner from the start," he said with a tired chuckle. Then he shook his head. "I'm sorry I punched you."

“No, you’re not. And I deserved it. For a lot of things.”

“Yeah, look I should get back to Azula. She’s probably wondering where I am.”

“You mean she’s probably wondering if you’re with Suki or not.”

Sokka rubbed the back of his neck. “About Suki… I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you. I kind of don’t want to, to be honest. All I know is that she deserves to be happy. She deserves to have someone who is going to be there for her. I wasn’t.”

“But you still have feelings for her.”

“Yeah. I can’t say I don’t. But…it’s better this way, for all the reasons I gave. She knows it too. I think we both realized it at some point these past few months. She’s better off without me.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

But Sokka just looked weary, so unlike himself that Zuko felt a runnel of fear go through him for his friend. How far had Sokka fallen, to look the way he did? “Don’t make the same mistakes I did.”

“Are you giving me your blessing?” Zuko asked, with a touch of humor. He wanted to make Sokka smile, to do anything to bring back the friend he’d known.

“No,” Sokka said bluntly, looking him square in the eyes. “I’m giving you a warning. If you break her heart, I swear to the Moon Spirit that I will break your legs and shit down your throat. That is not a vague disclaimer. That is a promise. And don’t think that I’m happy about this. I’m _not,_ but she has feelings for you, and I can’t be a hypocrite, not with everything I’ve done the past year, not with…whatever it is that I’m doing with Azula. I just need to know one thing: _do you love her?_ ”

"Yes," he said, without hesitation. "What are you intentions for my sister?"

"That depends on her," Sokka said heavily, as he started toward the tapestry. He opened the wall with a touch of his finger high up on the nearly invisible seam. The door swung open as easily as if it were made of paper, not stone. The yawning mouth of the dark stairwell awaited him. “Go to sleep, Zuko. I want you well rested when I try and kill you tomorrow night. And put something on your face. You’re starting to bruise.”

“Thanks for your concern,” he said dryly, watching Sokka step onto the stairs. “Sokka?”

“Yeah?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Take advantage of my sister and I’ll break your fucking face.”

A lopsided grin took hold of Sokka’s mouth and the man Zuko had known for so long finally made his reappearance. He nodded solemnly though. “Noted.”

The door closed, leaving Zuko alone in his bedroom to process. He didn’t know how he was feeling. Confused, of course. He was always confused these days. Worry for his sister rolled through him, Sokka’s none-too-gentle condemnation weighing on him. He knew that Sokka was right. He had all-but abandoned his sister. It had been easier to let her go, when he should have fought for her.

“Damn.”

He put ice on his face and sat on the edge of his bed as it melted into his palm. Afterwards, he crawled into bed, too exhausted and emotionally wrung out by the day to stay awake much longer. He wanted sleep and the clarity of his dreams. His thoughts wandered back to Suki.

She and Sokka had broken up. He mourned for their loss, on some level. He had seen how tortured Sokka had been, and no matter what, Zuko still felt guilty for what he’d done. Perhaps he hadn’t caused the break up directly, but he had contributed to it.

He couldn’t pretend that he didn’t want her. A large part of him wanted to go to her right now. To hold her, to talk her through her breakup, just as she had done for him when Mai had left. She hadn’t left his side, all those long, desperate months. Having her there had meant more to him than he could properly express, and somewhere along the way, his feelings for her had changed and gone deeper and deeper until he had been unable to hide the fact that he was in love with her, try as he might.

He wanted her, despite the rumors, the opposition of his council, his country, his best friend… He _wanted_ her. Needed her and he hoped that she felt the same way.

Everyone else around him had always needed him to be the Fire Lord, even when his heart was broken. Suki had only ever needed him to be himself.

Zuko sighed into the pillow and drifted into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

“Well, you’re certainly slinking in at a late hour,” an acerbic voice said as he opened the door. Sokka pulled up short in the doorway as he surveyed the woman before him with red, aching eyes.

Azula was standing in the middle of one of Zuko’s richly appointed guest suites, her arms crossed over her chest. She was wearing her favorite singed green robe, belted at the waist, her feet bare, her hair tumbled loosely down her shoulders. The scars on her legs shone in the dim candlelight, catching his gaze, and not for the first time. He hated seeing them, hated that he hadn’t been there to stop her.

When he looked up into her face, he could see the tight lines of strain around her eyes, the way her jaw was set firmly in defiance or anger. Or worry. He couldn’t be sure. There was pain there though; he knew too well not catch it fleeting in her troubled amber eyes. She knew where he’d been, after all.

“Azula…” he said carefully as he closed the door and locked it behind him.

“You went to her.”

“Yes. You knew that I was going to.”

Her chin lifted, fingernails sinking in her arms. “Was it a wonderful reunion, full of passionate embraces and heartfelt, mushy sentiment? Did she cry and ruin her makeup?” Her voice was all acid and it seared him.

“ _Azula…_ ”

“Well, that _is_ what you’ve been wanting all these months, to slink back to her and explain yourself, isn’t it? Beg forgiveness and live happily ever after? Of course, I suppose it never occurred to you that maybe she didn’t miss you at all. That she might be playing bed games with Zuzu.”

“AZULA.”

“I mean, far be it from me to believe a nasty, vicious rumor like that, but if I’m not mistaken, I definitely saw sparks between my big brother and your pretty little girlfriend. What a way to pay you back for risking your life to save his!”

“AZULA, _ENOUGH!_ ” Sokka shouted, anger crowning in him. He felt raw, abused and wrung out. “Just stop.”

Azula stared at him and then looked away, her expression reminding him of Zuko’s.  She was angry at him, but there was more hurt than anger fueling her at the moment. “I’ll bet you didn’t tell her about any of it, did you?”

He ran his hand down his face. “You’re wrong about that. I told her all of it.” Azula’s head shot up. “I couldn’t lie to her and I didn’t want to hurt her any more than I had to. And she—”

“And she forgave you?” she interjected incredulously

“I wouldn’t say that, no. But I think she understood.”

“How nice for you,” she sneered. “What a lucky girl Suki is. She gets you _and_ my brother.”

“It’s not like that.”

“What _is_ it like, Sokka? You saw the way they were together. You mean to tell me there’s nothing going on between her and Zuko? And yet you just crawled right back to her like none of it means anything? Where is your self-respect?”

“That’s _not_ what happened,” he said forcefully. He’d been practicing what he wanted to say to her all the way back from Zuko’s suite, but she hadn’t let him say the things he’d wanted to say. Everything was coming out wrong. “You knew I had to talk to her. I don’t need this jealous bullshit right now.”

“I’m not jealous! Jealous of _what?_ ”

“Azula…”

“Look me in the eye and tell me she’s _not_ fucking Zuko.”

“Not according to her _or_ him. But there is something going on between them. They both admitted it. I don’t know what it is. I don’t even know if _they_ know what it is.” Looking at the emotion on Azula’s face, he knew Zuko and Suki’s feelings all too well.

“And yet you still love her.”

“It’s not that simple. I can’t just shut it off, Azula.”

He stared at Azula; Azula, who had been driving him crazy for months, who had crawled beneath his skin in ways he couldn’t even begin to unravel. For all of her strength and fire and keen intelligence, she was the most fragile woman he’d ever known. The urge to protect her, both from the world and from herself, had grown inside of him like a weed, threatening to choke him.

She was broken, damaged and lonely. How many nights had put his arms around her just to stop her from screaming in her nightmares? How many times had he stopped her from harming herself, and yet here he was, adding to her pain. He’d known going to Suki would hurt her, but there had been no getting around it.

Azula’s arms dropped to their sides and she dug her nails into her bare leg hard enough to break the skin. He jumped forward and grabbed her wrist, stopping her before she could put another set of scars alongside the others just like it. She had peppered her thighs and forearms with thin marks over the years, and he had slowly been trying to wean her off of the compulsion since he’d discovered that she was doing it, which hadn’t been long after they had gone undercover together.

“Hey, no… Don’t do that…” he said softly. As he lifted her hand to his mouth to kiss her knuckle gently, her sleeve fell back and revealed a series of ugly red marks on the inside of her wrist. They were still bleeding slightly. Azula’s expression was pained as it met his and then flitted away. “I thought we agreed you weren’t going to do this anymore.”

“What’s it to you?” she said haughtily, trying to jerk her arm free, but he held her tightly.

“Because I care about you, Azula. I don’t want to see you hurting.”

“Who said I’m hurting?” she said, and a tear escaped her eyes. She swiped it away and successfully jerked her arm out of his grip. She turned her back on him.

“I broke up with her.”

Azula’s shoulders stiffened. “What?”

“You heard me.” He stepped forward and put his hand on her waist, but she was unyielding, her hands clenching at her sides.

“Why did you do that?” Her voice was careful, hesitant.

“There were a lot of reasons. Mostly that I didn’t want to be with her anymore. That I _can’t_ be with her. It’s complicated. For her. For me. Because of Zuko. Because of how I left her.” He pushed his face into her hair and sighed. "You know how I feel about you, Azula."

“You think you're in love with me,” she shot matter-of-factly and accusingly over her shoulder at him. He bit back a smile. “That doesn’t mean I feel anything for _you_.”

“I think you do.”

“I think you’re a fool if you think that.”

Sokka let her go as she whirled on him. They stared at one another for a long moment.

"I told Zuko about Rinchaka Falls. And I mentioned that...you'd been through some stuff. I didn't say what."

The color drained out of her face, but she didn’t react otherwise. Her earlier panic attack hadn’t been forgotten by either of them though; he could still see it in the tightness of her shoulders. “I see.”

“He’s worried about you.” But he wasn’t talking about Zuko and he knew that she knew it.

“He doesn’t need to be. I’m fine,” she lied. They both knew she was lying, but he let it slide for now. It had been a long day for the both of them, an emotional roller coaster that had drained them both. Too many months spent on the run, moving from one nightmare situation to another had taken their toll.

“Azula…” he started, but she cut him off.

“I’m going to bed. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

She started to walk away, but he caught her wrist again.

“Promise me you won’t do this again,” he said, pushing her sleeve back again.

She hesitated and then breathed out and nodded. “It just… _helped_ …”

“I know. Please, for me?”

“Whatever,” she said, which was as close as she ever got to agreeing with him. Then she was gone, stalking through the suite and slamming the bedroom doors behind her, a message he found it hard not to read. Sokka stared after her for a long moment and then sank onto the couch, too exhausted to stand any longer. He tried to sleep, but as the hours wore on, he knew that there was no way he was sleeping tonight. At least not alone.

He got up and walked into the bedroom on silent feet. Azula appeared to be asleep in the large bed, but when he climbed in beside her, she turned over and pressed her head to his chest, arm draping over his stomach, her hands clenching his clothes for one possessive moment. He had a feeling she’d been awake the whole night; that she’d been waiting for him.

He knew how she felt. They’d been sleeping beside each other for months. He couldn’t sleep without her warmth any longer. He sighed into her hair as she relaxed against him and fell back asleep. He breathed in her scent. Whatever was going on between them was complicated and inconvenient. He hadn’t meant to fall for her. He hadn’t meant to hurt Suki. He hadn’t meant for _any_ of this to happen.

He’d only wanted to save Zuko’s life. He thought of Suki, of the woman he had loved for so long. He missed her. Missed what they’d had, but that was over and done with.

Sokka stroked Azula’s neck in the dark, warm bed, her steady breathing a balm on his nerves like nothing else had been for the past several months.  It didn’t take long for him to follow her into sleep.

His dreams were restless, nightmarish and confused.


	10. Chapter 10

“Well,” Zuko said heavily, staring into the full-length mirror as he adjusted the sleeves of his ruby-red robes.  His tailor had taken the insistent summer heat and the fact that he was going to be doing a lot of dancing into account; no heavy, stiff robes for him tonight, for which he was grateful. His half-robe was made of lightweight scarlet silk, hemmed in golden thread at the collar, with ebony buttons down the front. A sash so dark red that it was almost black was tied to his waist over a pair of silk pants the same color red as his robe, with gold-colored soft boots pulled to his knees. His long hair was pulled back and gathered into a topknot, his crown inserted into the top of it. “How do I look?”

“Very handsome, sire,” Fen said, watching him from the side, an itinerary in one hand. His secretary was bedecked in an elegant and elaborate outfit of light red, with more embroidery at the cuffs than his; he wasn’t surprised. Fen was a bit of a clothes horse. “The ladies will love being seen on your arm.”

Zuko pulled a face, an impending sense of doom rising over him that hadn’t ceased since he’d woken up from a night of bad dreams. He’d spent most of his morning trying to explain to Fen where he’d gotten the bruise on his face, while desperately attempting to keep his mind off of the ball, the real-but-fake assassination plot and, as always, Suki.

“Don’t look so down, Zuko,” Fen said, dropping his usual politeness and patting him on the arm in commiseration. “You’ll survive the night, I’d wager.”

He made a monosyllabic sound that Fen took as agreement. Zuko shifted in place, tugging at his collar as if it were too tight. His clothing fit him perfectly though, and even he had to admit that the whole thing was rather striking on him.

“You’re too handsome for your own good, nephew,” said a voice just behind Fen, who jumped and turned on the source instantly. Zuko, who had seen him enter through the mirror, pulled his first real smile in days as he turned to face his uncle. “Is it any wonder the women of the Fire Nation are tearing themselves apart to marry you?”

“Hmmph. I’d be flattered, but they like the title, _not_ the man,” Zuko said darkly as he looked at his uncle. It had been nearly a year since he’d seen him, and that had been too damned long. _I’ve been letting work get in the way of seeing him._ _I need to take more time off to visit him in Ba Sing Se. Or maybe I could bring him here more often._

Wearing a long robe of crimson and gold that strained a bit at the belly, Iroh looked dignified nonetheless. Time had added a few more lines to his uncle’s face, and a few more pounds to his middle, but he looked as spritely as ever. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes as he surveyed Zuko from head to toe.

“Ahh yes, but a good man uses his resources wisely.”

“Are you telling me to use my title to sleep with women?”

“I didn’t say that,” Iroh said, pulling him into a hug that was crushing. He whispered into Zuko’s ear as he squeezed the breath out of him, “But I’m not saying you _shouldn’t,_ either. Of course, from what I hear, you already have a complicated love life…”

He released Zuko, whose head tipped back with a groan. Those damned rumors. He was seriously contemplating outlawing anyone slandering him…but that seemed like something his father might have done. As much as he disliked it, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“Uncle, I’ve missed you. I’m so glad you could come.”

“Me too. It’s been too long. And I hear a lot has happened recently. There are rumors…”

 “I shudder to think of what you’ve heard. Or where you heard it, Uncle,” he said, tipping his head back and catching the wide grin on Iroh’s bearded face.

“I got into the city late last night and stayed at a hotel. It was all they could talk about in the tea shops of the capital,” Iroh glanced at Fen, who was riffling through some papers at the desk. “You were attacked by an assassin?”

“Yes,” he said, and glanced at Fen. Tonight’s plot was supposed to be a secret, but he knew if there was anyone he could trust in the palace, besides Suki and Sokka, it was his Uncle Iroh. “Fen? Could you give us a moment?”

“Of course, Fire Lord Zuko. General Iroh, it is a pleasure to see you again,” Fen said and started toward the door. He stopped and half-turned toward them, glancing at the itinerary in his hands. “I’ve taken the liberty to arrange your escort for the start of the ball. The Princess Azula and two of your bodyguards will be here in less than an hour to escort you down.”

“Uhh, yes, thank you. That would be…lovely,” Zuko said, glancing at Iroh, who had lifted one bushy white eyebrow at the mention of Azula’s name. Fen nodded and closed the door of the suite behind him. He turned on Iroh.

“Your sister is here?” he asked with apprehension.

“Yes, and there’s something I have to tell you,” he said shortly and launched into the story of the assassination attempt, Azula and Sokka’s undercover operation and their plans for tonight. When he finished, his Uncle was sitting on the edge of a chair, which creaked beneath his weight. He looked thoughtful, and worried.

“And you’re sure this will draw out the mole within the palace?”

“If they think Sokka… _Tazeo_ will talk, then Azula says it will.”

“Hmmm…” Iroh thought, stroking his beard. “But what do they want? To kill you and put Azula on the throne instead?”

“She doesn’t think so. She thinks they dangled that carrot to get her to join them, but she thinks they’re going to try and kill her too.”

“And then the mole takes the throne?”

“I don’t know, but according to Mai and from what Sokka and Azula have seen, they’ve been infiltrating my army. They oppose the Harmony Restoration Movement, but they’re concentrating their efforts on taking down the Fire Nation, for whatever reason.”

“And you trust Azula?”

The question rang in the air between them and Zuko sighed, sinking down into a chair. He put his elbows on his knees, leaning forward. He felt exhausted all of a sudden. “I trust Sokka, and for whatever reason, he trusts her. He’s seen what these people can do. He knows how they operate. I have to trust the both of them.”

“My niece is…not well.”

“No, she’s not,” he admitted, thinking of his conversation with Sokka the night before. Guilt flooded him. “But I believe she wants to help. Or at least, I believe she doesn’t me murdered by an assassin. Mai thought that too. And obviously so does Sokka.”

“And what about Mai? If this whole plot is discovered, won’t she be in danger?”

Zuko sat up straight. The thought hadn’t occurred to him before, and he wondered why it hadn’t. Mai had been risking her own safety to help him too, and he’d completely forgotten that. “I don’t know. Mai’s smart. She probably knows that…and she’s always been able to take care of herself. Once we handle what’s going on in the palace, I’ll make sure she’s safe.”

Iroh nodded, looking thoughtful. “She came to me, your sister. About two years ago.”

Zuko blinked. This was the first he’d heard of it, and the fact that his Uncle hadn’t told him was mildly shocking. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted softly, looking at his hands. “She came to the tea shop one rainy day, soaked to the skin. She was half-starved and she had a fever. I doctored her. She slept for three days and didn’t say a word to me for five. She stayed another week, spoke little and ate a lot. She had nightmares that woke me, but wouldn’t speak of them. I tried to get her to talk, but she would not. Then one morning before dawn I found her sneaking out. I gave her money and some food I had packed for her. And she left without a backwards glance. I expected her back eventually, but she never came. I’ve been worried about her ever since.”

The guilty knot in his stomach tightened. What had Azula been up to since her disappearance? How had she lived before Mai had given her a mission? Worry turned his bandaged hand into a fist.

“I wish you had told me.”

“And what would you have done, nephew? I offered to take her in, but she left. She was hurting…and though she and I have had our differences, she is my brother’s daughter and I care about what happens to her. She will not take help if she does not want it.”

“Maybe not…” A ‘but’ lingered in the air between them, unspoken. He smoothed his hands down his scarred face. “I’ll handle Azula once I get through this crisis. Sokka thinks she’s stable. For now. I’ll trust his judgment.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Stay safe. I don’t want to give my enemies another target. I know you can take care of yourself, Uncle, which is why I told you what’s going on. I trust Sokka, I do, but not as much as I do you. And Suki.”

Something in his uncle’s expression changed, a frown forming on his lips in the tiniest of fractions.

“And how is Suki?”

Zuko sat back; of course his deflection away from the rumors about him and Suki hadn’t worked. He colored, realizing that there was disapproval in Iroh’s expression. “It’s not what you think. It’s…complicated…”

“We have a moment, why don’t you uncomplicated it for me?” Iroh offered as the door opened without ceremony, letting in a lithe figure draped in vermilion. The dress was without ornamentation, with long sleeves, belted at the waist with a black satin sash. Her hair was free, tumbling down her back and shoulders in a glossy black curtain. The crown of her birthright was inserted into a small gathering of hair at the top of her head.

“Azula,” he said, standing, as Iroh did the same. He was almost grateful for the interruption. Azula’s gaze flicked from him to their uncle and back again. Her chin lifted and a haughty expression of indifference crossed her face.

“Hello, Zuko. Uncle,” she said tartly. “I suppose you told him.”

“Of course I did,” Zuko said. “We could use another set of eyes in the ballroom.”

“Hmmm…I suppose you’re right,” she drawled, walking forward. “Uncle, you look fatter than I remember.”

“The ladies of Ba Sing Se enjoy feeding me!” he declared, patting his belly. “But you look lovely, Princess Azula.”

Azula’s gaze flicked to her gown, which wasn’t half as fancy as even Iroh’s robes; her cheeks colored and she lifted her chin again. “Yes, well, I’ve been traveling a lot lately. There isn’t much time for shopping when you’re trying to stop assassins from killing your brother. Your man Fen sent the crown to my room this morning. If you object to my wearing it…”

“No,” he said quickly. “It’s yours, Azula. Yours by all rights. You look beautiful,” he said, glancing at his uncle, who was watching Azula with an odd expression on his face. “Is everything set? Is he ready?”

Azula nodded, and he saw a line of strain between her eyes. “Yes. If anything goes wrong tonight, it won’t be because we weren’t prepared. I just hope your girlfriend doesn’t forget herself.”

“Suki will do her part,” he said tightly.

“Girlfriend?” Iroh interjected, but he sent him a quelling look.

“Later, Uncle,” Zuko said. “I’m sure Fen is outside the door now, waiting for me to throw myself to the she-wolves…”

“Hmm…well, I passed Lady Shura in the hallway on my way up. She certainly looks predatory,” Azula said, sounding almost like her old self. He wasn’t sure what to make of her, to be honest. He remembered the way she had panicked the day before, the way Sokka had had to pry her hands from her face. He hoped that she didn’t check out when he needed her the most. If this was going to work, he was going to have to trust his mentally ill sister.

And that had never worked out for him in the past.

Iroh fell into step with them as they made their way toward the door. “Lady Shura? Is she still pretending all of the men in the Nation want to sleep with her?”

“I’m afraid so,” Zuko said, remembering things best left unremembered. He opened the door, and found two of his guards, Qing and Mei Lin, wearing the full Kyoshi uniform, standing on the other side, with Fen waiting patiently for his appearance.

“Oh good, I was about to fetch you,” Fen said, nodding at him. “So the procedure is that we will go down to the upper gallery. Your bodyguards will flank you at all times. General Iroh, we will announce you first.”

“I’ve been to too many of these things, I know the procedures,” Iroh said, but there was no annoyance in his voice. He smiled at Fen, who nodded.

“Then we will announce you and the Princess Azula. You two will come down the stairs to the receiving line. There you will meet the ladies of the Nation. Once you are done with the line, you and Princess Azula will open the ball with the first dance. After that you may dance with whomever you wish.”

The sharp look Fen gave him told him that opting out of dancing altogether was not going to work. His lip curled.

“Understood.”

“You won’t be expected to address all of your guests until later in the evening. At a quarter to seven, I will come find you. You’ll give your speech at eight o’clock sharp. I have your speech already written.” He indicated a golden card, which he slipped into the front of his robes. “Then there will be more dancing until late into the night. You’ll be expected to attend until at least midnight.”

 _Not if there’s an assassination attempt I won’t_ , he thought smugly. Poor Fen. He’d been at the head of the planning committee for the ball. He and Sokka were about to utterly destroy all of his secretary’s hard work. Zuko almost felt sorry for him, but then he thought of all the women he wouldn’t have to dance with and decided that he’d get over it.

“Understood,” he said. He glanced at his sister, who was watching him with an unreadable expression on her face.

“Can you even dance?” she asked derisively.

Zuko smiled to himself. “Of course I can.”

 _And I had a great teacher,_ he thought as Iroh went ahead of them, with Fen leading the whole procession. He nodded at Mei Lin and Qing, who would be his only visible bodyguards tonight. The other Warriors were all in Fire Nation clothes, to better blend in with the crowd, for his protection. At the bottom of the long, winding staircase, the sound a thousand voices floated up and out of the ballroom. Soft music flowed through the air, along with the faint sound of tinking plates and clinking glasses. Nervousness filled him and he clenched his sweaty fists, the urge to run growing in his guts.

He could face down enemies and assassins, but social gatherings where everyone would be looking at him were another matter entirely.

“Who punched you?” Azula asked him quietly, so the others wouldn’t hear her.

“Who do you think?” he shot at her. “It was nothing I didn’t deserve.”

 “But they broke up. Isn’t that convenient for you?”

“And you.”

She laughed softly. “And who said I even wanted him?”

He was barely aware of reaching the upper gallery. There was a short hallway that led to a balcony that overlooked the gigantic, seldom-used ballroom. The light of a thousand burning fires in sconces along the walls and gigantic braziers created a warm, bright glow. Someone was announcing the names of the nobility as they arrived.

He heard the announcer call his Uncle’s name, and heard the applause as Iroh disappeared around the corner, leaving him to hold out his arm for Azula to take. She hesitated for a moment, as if steeling herself to touch him--what was that about?--and then gently took his arm. Finally, the applause died down and they announced first Azula’s name and then his. Azula started forward, but his weight tugged her back.

She stopped and glanced back at him with exasperation. “Honestly, Zuko. You’re the Fire Lord!”

He girded himself and stepped forward out of the dark hallway, Qing and Mei Lin a few steps behind him. He passed Fen, who nodded at him.

The applause was thunderous and overwhelming. So was the light. Below him, he saw as he walked past the balcony and toward the stairs, was a sea of reds in every shade, blacks, grays, and rich, glossy golds, winking jewels and upturned faces. His people.

He kept in step with Azula as they walked down the stairs. Some people in the crowd were staring at Azula, whispering behind their hands at her mysterious reemergence in the palace. No doubt the rumors of her arrival had already spread like wildfire, but hearing about it and seeing her firsthand were entirely separate things.

It seemed all eyes were on his sister at the moment, and for a half-second he was grateful not to be the center of everyone’s attention, but then he noticed the way Azula’s arm tightened on his, and the way her red mouth was pinched at the corners.

“Azula?” he asked as they made their way down the stairs slowly, the applause carrying them down. “Are you okay?”

But she didn’t answer. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, she didn’t let him go, and he fought the urge to put an arm around her, to protect her from the curious looks and whispered comments. Anger filled him. No matter what she had done in the past that was no way to treat a princess. Fen appeared at his other elbow and bowed toward the line of men and women stretching around the perimeter of the ballroom.

Fen announced the names of the first people in line, a minor Count, his wife, and (predictably) daughter. Zuko steeled himself, smiled politely at them and kissed the hands of both mother and daughter, both of whom blushed, the daughter nearly shivering in place at his attentions.  Azula, playing her part better than he’d expected after seeing the strain on her face, politely greeted both the Count and his wife. She ignored the girl.

He sighed to himself as he promised the daughter a dance. It was going to be a long evening.

He couldn’t wait until Sokka tried to kill him.

* * *

Suki passed through the crowds, watching as Zuko bent over hand after hand. He smiled politely at each girl presented to him, promising dances to each one. Most of them he didn’t even look in the eye. A few he did though. She noticed that he lingered over the hand of a particularly beautiful young woman, who looked radiant in white silk, with large lotus flowers embroidered in red and gold. In a sea of red she stood out, but Suki had a feeling that even if she’d been wearing a burlap sack, she might have stood out.

Suki recognized her one of the girls she’d gotten into an argument with in the hallway. She was the tallest of the girls, the one who had shouted something about her father.

Their insults still rankled, and the sight of Zuko smiling at her made her want to stalk over to them and punch the girl in the face, then grab Zuko and drag him out of the ballroom.

Instead, she just stood there, half-hidden behind two portly men smelling strongly of wine.

“That’s Councilor Guo’s youngest daughter,” one of the men whispered to the other, both of them ignoring her. “Beautiful, isn’t she? If anyone’s catching the Fire Lord tonight, it’ll be Cara.”

Suki’s teeth ground together as she watched Cara say something to Zuko, something that had Zuko smiling. He kissed her hand again and then moved on to the next people in line, leaving Councilman Guo’s daughter to smile smugly to herself.

No wonder she’d threatened Suki with her father. Guo was probably the most respected member of the Council. Everyone listened to him, and though she had never heard him say anything rude to her, or about her, she had always had the feeling that Guo disliked her presence at the Council meetings.

As Zuko moved on down the line, she saw Cara turn to her father, who had been standing back out of the direct line of sight, which was why she hadn’t noticed him at first.

 _Or maybe I was watching Zuko a little too hard,_ she thought to herself as she turned her attention on Azula, who was playing her part well. There was nothing but confidence in her greetings, and grace in her smile. Hopefully nothing would trigger the episode she had witnessed in Zuko’s suite; their plan needed Azula if it was going to succeed.

“The Princess looks rather ill,” the portly man in front of her said, drawing her out of her thoughts. She’d heard lots of whispers about Azula since she’d appeared at the top of the stairs on Zuko’s arm. Apparently the rumors of her return had spread as quickly as the rumors of what had transpired on Zuko’s balcony that night. And with less accuracy.

She’d already heard a dozen different tales, whispered behind bejeweled hands, that Azula was there to find a husband. That she was moving back into the palace. That she had murdered the Earth King, that she had ridden completely naked through the streets of Ba Sing Se on the Earth King’s stolen bear. That she was pregnant with the Avatar’s first child. That she was seeking asylum after committing a string of murders on each continent. That she was holding Zuko hostage. That _she_ had come to marry Zuko before anyone else could.

_Honestly, where do they come up with this shit?_

“Well, I’ve heard a lot of rumors since her arrival yesterday. It seems she came here with a rather rough-looking fellow. Covered in tattoos. My groomsman was in the livery when they came in. The Seneschal himself came down to inspect and question them.”

“They stopped the princess at the gate, like a commoner?” his friend exclaimed in surprise. Suki listened with half an ear, watching Zuko moving down the line, which was getting rapidly smaller. The people he had already greeted were mingling in the crowd. Soon it would be time to start the ball properly. She wondered how nervous Zuko was getting, knowing that he was going to have to dance in front of everyone.

“Of course they stopped her! The last time she was in the Fire Nation, she went crazy and tried to kill the Fire Lord, the Avatar and her own mother. She’s a danger to society.”

“They should have kept her locked up in that asylum.”

“Like any good family of breeding would,” his friend agreed. “Such things are best kept under rug swept. If she were my child I would have left her there and more’s the pity. She’s a beautiful woman and just the right age to please a man.” He dug a knowing elbow into his friend’s fat ribs.

“Too bad she’s insane. And as likely to kill you as kiss you.”

“Do you suppose the Fire Lord would sell her off to the highest bidder? Seems to me he might want her off of his hands, and the sooner the better.”

“You couldn’t afford her, Toshi.”

And they both laughed. Suki’s lips curled back over her teeth and nose wrinkled. She wasn’t Azula’s biggest fan, but she didn’t like how the men in front of her were talking about her. She glared at their wide backsides and started to move on, when one of them said, “Well, regardless of your noble and carnal intentions toward our beloved princess, I believe she’s already spoken for. My groomsman didn’t like the look of her companion though. He said he didn’t know why the Seneschal allowed him entry. He looked like a dangerous man.”

“Intriguing… Is he in the crowd, you think?”

“I don’t know…”

 _He’d better not be. Not yet, anyway_ , she thought with some amusement.

Suki walked on, keeping an eye on Zuko the whole time. Her thoughts were turned inward though, as she circled the room. She spotted her other Warriors in the crowd, nodding at them when she caught their eye. They were blending in well. They’d taken her mandate about wearing Fire Nation clothing seriously, and were draped in reds and golds. They looked beautiful. Ty Lee looked especially lovely, and was surrounded by a crowd of men who watched her with lust in their gazes. But Ty Lee wasn’t paying them any attention.

She only had eyes for one person. Suki didn’t have to follow her gaze to know who Ty Lee was watching with her heart in her eyes. Azula was still moving down the receiving line, her back mostly to the crowd. That didn’t matter. Ty Lee looked gutted, caught between fleeing and staying rooted to the spot. There was even fear there, more than a bit of it and Suki was unsurprised to see it in the acrobat’s expression; Ty Lee had once admitted to her that Azula scared her to death.

But that hadn’t stopped her from falling in love with her; it had only made the whole thing a thousand times worse.

Pity welled in her. She hadn’t thought about what Azula’s sudden reappearance might do to Ty Lee. The woman had gone through a lot the past few years. Coming out had not been easy for her; the rumor mill of the palace had ripped her to shreds and she’d been labeled a sexual deviant, something Suki had found a bit shocking.

In the Earth Kingdom, being gay was socially acceptable and hardly spared a second thought. She’d been raised to accept others as they were, but in the Fire Nation, it seemed, such things were not to be spoken of, and those found to be “abnormal” were to be ostracized from polite society.  

The Council had gotten wind of the whole scandal and had tried to get Zuko to intervene—by firing Ty Lee. It had been one of the only times, save the other morning, after the attack on the balcony the other day, that Suki had seen him yell at his council. Zuko had signed a law protecting the rights of homosexuals, something, she remembered fondly, that had made Ty Lee weep openly on Zuko’s shoulder for a good hour.  

Since then, the people of the Fire Nation had relaxed their stance a bit, but not so much that Ty Lee didn’t still suffer from the occasional scandalous rumor. To her credit, she took it on the chin and rolled with it. Suki admired her for that, and a dozen things more.

She smiled to herself, remembering the look on Zuko’s face as he’d held Ty Lee while she’d sobbed. He’d looked up at her for help, but she’d only had a smile for him. She’d felt so proud of him in that moment, so terribly, wonderfully proud to call him her friend, to watch him become a man who was proud of the things he had accomplished, who could and did change the world, simply because it was the right thing to do. And because it would help one of his dear friends.

_And that’s the moment I fell in love with him._

The thought entered her mind, completely unbidden, and she stopped dead in her tracks. Tears sprang into her eyes and she felt the world tilting beneath her. She knew it was true. Even though that had been over two years ago. Even though he had still been dating Mai at the time. Even though she had still been with Sokka.

She’d been trying not to think of Sokka. She’d cried herself to sleep last night, mourning what she had lost. It had hurt more than she’d realized, breaking up with him. The lingering heat from his last kiss hadn’t left her, but once she’d calmed down, she’d known that there had been finality in it. Maybe there was a way to repair the damage between them, but she knew that neither of them truly wanted to. They had moved on.

 _I’ve moved on,_ she thought, her gaze sliding from Azula to Zuko, who kissed the back of another girl’s hand. There were only two more families standing in the receiving line and she saw with a groan that the infamous Lady Shura was standing at the very end.

The woman, who was fifty if she was a day, was still beautiful, with ebony hair that had to be artificially colored, because there wasn’t even a hint of gray in it. She had an expansive bosom, her dress draped in a way to show off her ample assets so that no one in the room could miss them. She wasn’t thin, but she wasn’t fat either. Her curves were soft, hinting at a sensual beauty that she was clinging to with tooth and nail. Her makeup was heavy, though flattering. Rubies draped her like glittering drops of blood.

Suki moved closer, jealousy roaring through her as she watched Zuko kiss the hand of another girl she recognized from the altercation in the hallway: the girl with the orange blossom in her hair. She was wearing another one in her hair tonight, and she giggled and jiggled in place as Zuko said something to her. Then he moved on and Lady Shura practically put her red nails right in him.

The smile on Zuko’s face was brittle as he bent and kissed Lady Shura’s hand, but she yanked him forward. He nearly tripped over his own feet as she did, and his face came inches from smacking straight into the woman’s infamous décolletage. He caught himself at the last second, his eyes widening as he straightened, but Lady Shura brought him in close and whispered something in his ear that made him turn bright red.

He mumbled something and moved off, leaving Lady Shura looking smugly proud of herself, though when she turned her head, she caught Suki staring at her through the crowd. Recognition hit her and she got a nasty expression on her face, no doubt remembering Suki tossing her out of Zuko’s suite stark naked. Not once, but _twice._

Feeling pretty smug herself, Suki watched Lady Shura disappear into the crowd as Fen stepped up to Zuko and Azula. At some unspoken signal, the orchestra stopped the soft music it had previously been playing, which had run through the crowd in a soothing undercurrent. Now they struck a loud, soaring chord, bows scraping strings. The announcer at the top of the stairs, his voice ringing out loud and clear over the din, said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Fire Lord Zuko and Princess Azula will now open the ball with a dance.”

Suki saw Zuko’s face pale as he offered his arm to Azula, who took it, a bland expression on her face. Suki bit down on her lip, watching as he led her to the center of the ballroom, where everyone made a large space for them.

The orchestra struck another chord, and then the music began in earnest. It floated through the air like gossamer threads, enticing and electrifying the people of the Fire Nation. Zuko glanced down at his feet once, and Suki mentally told him to look up. A second later he did, and then he and Azula were dancing, moving in the uncomplicated steps she had shown him, his back upright, arms stiff, but not unyielding, his head up, his steps precise, but flowing.

Pride swelled in her and she found herself smiling widely as she watched him dancing. As loathe as Suki was to admit it, Azula was a good dancer too, and seemed surprised that Zuko wasn’t tripping all over himself.  Suki couldn’t help but feel jealous though.

She wanted to dance with him, and to hell with the rest of the women there.  Memories of his hands on her waist, his eyes on her as they’d danced together came to her and she felt a flush of heat hit her cheeks that quickly turned to an inferno as his dance with Azula came to an end. Almost immediately the crowd surged forward, partners finding each other.

The orchestra started playing another song, and she saw a man she didn’t know claim a dance from Azula, while a familiar figure in white materialized at Zuko’s elbow. He smiled at Guo’s daughter and they started dancing.

Suki, standing on the edge of the dance floor, vibrated in place. She stepped forward and stopped herself. She was vaguely aware of a roaring in her ears. She watched Cara flash a seductive smile at Zuko and saw him smiling at her in return as they turned on the dance floor, his hand on her slender waist.

She wanted to march over there and punch the girl right in her perfect teeth, but she swayed in place instead, letting her rage simmer.

“Doesn’t she look perfect with him?” someone simpered on her left. Suki started, and glanced at the girl with the orange blossom in her hair. She didn’t seem to be paying any attention to Suki, though she knew that her comment had been directed at her.  “Certainly better than a Dirt Girl bodyguard ever could.”

Suki didn’t say anything, determined not to rise to the girl’s bait.

“Cara’s going to marry him, you know. Her father’s determined she’s going to be Fire Lady.”

“Doesn’t that leave you out in the cold?” she shot at the girl, and immediately regretted it.

“Oh, I’ll find someone soon enough. I don’t really want a freak with a great big scar on his face, Fire Lord or not. Cara doesn’t mind the scar, so long as he buys her pretty things. And Cara always gets her way, so I don’t doubt he’ll empty the royal coffers to get her whatever she wants.” Orange blossom girl sounded only slightly bitter. No doubt she had gotten used to playing second fiddle to her friend from an early age.

“Do you really think Zuko won’t see right through her?” she said through her teeth.

“Do you really think you’re good enough for the Fire Lord?” the girl shot at her. “The whole Nation is disgusted by your affair. He’s slumming it and you know it. Cara’s of high birth. Her father is respected. And she’s beautiful. What are you? You’re nothing but a minor inconvenience to a girl like Cara. Once she gets her claws in him, he won’t even remember your name, Dirt Girl. Just like the rest of us.”

And with that, the girl stalked away, leaving Suki feeling gutted, angry and kicking herself for rising to the girl’s bait. She should have walked away.

And she should never have tossed a knife at the girl.

“Dammit,” she said, watching Zuko spinning Guo’s daughter in an elaborate circle through the other dancers. They were doing the Phoenix Waltz, a dance she and Zuko had practiced for hours. Her heart ached as she watched them coming closer and closer. The music swelled and Zuko ended the dance on the dip—just had she shown him—right in front of her.

Cara laughed breathlessly as Zuko dipped her down.

“Oh my! I didn’t know you were such a good dancer!” she said in a voice completely unlike the one she had used on Suki in the hallway. Suki tried to control the expression on her face as Zuko pulled her back upright.

“Thank you. I had a good…teacher…” His voice trailed off as he looked past Cara’s shoulder and met Suki’s gaze for the first time that night. Suki stared back for a moment, noticing the way his hand was still on Cara’s back. A cavalcade of emotions tumbled through her. She knew from the look on his face, and, she noticed, from the bruise on his cheek, that Sokka had told him everything.  He knew they had broken up. What was he thinking? Was he thinking anything at all? Did he even care?

All of a sudden, Orange Blossom Girl’s voice rang in her ears, taunting her. _Do you really think you’re good enough for the Fire Lord?_

Zuko’s mouth opened and he started to say something, but Suki turned on her heel and fled, disappearing into the crowd. She didn’t look back. She couldn’t.

* * *

Zuko was vaguely aware of Guo’s daughter speaking in his ear, her breath against his neck, but she might as well have been a mosquito, as annoying as he found her. He brushed her off of him impatiently as another girl appeared out of nowhere to claim a dance from him.

He barely paid any attention to the girl, or the way Guo’s daughter walked away in a huff. His gaze was on the crowd, searching for the woman who had slipped away into it, a hurt expression on her face. He had no idea why that hurt look was in Suki’s eyes, but he had a feeling he had done something to cause it.

He couldn’t get her image out of his head.

She’d looked beautiful, draped in a rich red dress, silk and satin, fitted to her hips, with a slit up the side he had a feeling she had chosen for its ability to fight in rather than how flattering it might look on her. It _was_ flattering though, and he’d always liked her in red. The gold swirls on the red silk had dazzled him like nothing anyone else had worn had. She hadn’t worn any jewels. She hadn’t needed any.

He danced like an automaton, moving in time to a beat he didn’t feel, to music he couldn’t hear, with a girl he barely acknowledged. He tried to find Suki in the crowd again, looking past the girl in his arms, but he couldn’t find her.

The large clock on the wall told him that he had forty minutes until he was supposed to make his speech. A half-hour until this whole thing could be over. He spotted Azula dancing with Counselor Osamu. She too glanced up at the clock, then at him.

Somewhere, Sokka was preparing for his speech. But where was Suki?

Two more girls appeared before he could beg off for a bit of fresh air. As soon as he was free of them, he grabbed a glass of what proved to be something alcoholic, slugged it back with a fortifying gulp and then looked around for Suki as a servant took the empty glass from him.

It was hot in the ballroom. Though the large doors to the veranda were open, the breeze that came into the room was sultry and smelled of volcanic ash from the long-extinct caldera. The large fires illuminating the massive room repelled anyone who got too near them. Sweat popped out on the back of his neck. He needed a moment, somewhere to collect his thoughts and cool down.

He turned toward one of the smaller side hallways jutting off of the ballroom, one he knew led to a small, seldom-used bathroom. He fully intended to splash some water on his face and take a moment away from the noise and chaos.

Guo stopped him as he passed. “I see you’ve met my daughter, Cara.”

 _Was that her name?_ he thought to himself. He’d lost it the moment she’d said it, but when she’d told him that she was the daughter of one of his Councilor’s, he’d made an effort to be polite to her. “Oh, yes. She’s very nice.”

“She’s quite taken with you.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the restroom,” he said quickly, and darted down the hallway. He hoped that Guo wouldn’t follow him, and was relieved when he didn’t. He rounded the corner of the dimly lit hallway, and stopped when he nearly knocked into a figure standing against the wall. “Suki…?”

Suki’s head shot up and her gaze hit his. Her eyes were wet, but she didn’t look like she’d been crying. Instead she was stunned to see him, her mouth opening and closing as he stepped close to her, unable to stop himself.

The scent of her perfume tantalized his senses, warming him like the alcohol had.

“Zuko…” she started, her gaze searching his. “What are you doing here? Where are your guards?”

“I don’t know…” he mumbled, his gaze on her mouth. “What are you doing here?”

She bit her lip, and whispered, “I don’t know.”

And then they both reached for each other.

.


	11. Chapter 11

Kissing Zuko was like jumping off a mountain. The world seemed to rush past her in confusing, exhilarating waves as her arms locked around his neck, her mouth slamming to his so hard it was almost painful. They stumbled a little as his hands tugged her against his long, lean length. Her shoulders hit the wall at her back as she groaned into the heat of his mouth.

Zuko, for his part, readjusted, putting one hand on the wall and pushing them flush against it. She lifted up on tiptoes, opening her mouth to his. His tongue teased her and then retreated, almost asking her to follow him, not demanding, but offering.

She didn’t just follow him. She _chased_ him, the tip of her tongue tracing the outline of his lips with a teasing caress. He opened to her eagerly, one hand sneaking up to gather in the hair at the back her neck. His breath rolled against her open mouth as he withdrew for a split second, and then kissed her again, a moan knocking out of his throat at the same time.

Her heart thundered in her chest, her pulse racing out of control as her head spun. She hadn’t imagined it. As woozy and wracked with pain as she’d been on the balcony that night, a knife in her shoulder, she hadn’t imagined how he’d made her feel.

Zuko’s kisses were sinful, addictive and hungry. As her tongue slid against his, drawing his tongue into her mouth, she felt shivers race through her. Her knees shook, threatening to buckle. He had her though. She knew he’d catch her if she fell.

She hadn’t meant for this to happen. She’d only wanted a moment alone to collect her thoughts, and suddenly he had just been there. Alone.

She couldn’t remember which one of them had reached for the other first. It hardly mattered. She’d known what she wanted the moment he’d come around the corner, the second their gazes had met. What she’d wanted for a very, very long time…

But time had no meaning here, locking in his embrace. The ball seemed very far away, for all that they were only twenty feet or so from the bright lights and soaring orchestra. Zuko’s lips teased hers as he pulled back again. She let out a shaky breath, her fingers threading in the hair that had escaped his topknot at the back of his neck.

“Zuko…” she managed, feeling his nose brush against hers. Then he kissed her again, and she was immediately lost in the sweet rush of him. Little fires of delight ignited along her nerves and she lifted up on tiptoe, trying, in some way, to sink beneath the surface of his blazing hot skin. He kissed her, deep and rough, telling her without words how much he wanted her.

Telling her that he knew about Sokka.

Guilt sparked in her, but she pushed it down, one hand clutching the front of his robes, holding him to her with a desperate feeling. She didn’t want him to stop. If he stopped she might explode. The memory of him in the arms of Guo’s daughter made her kiss him all the harder.

_Do you really think you’re good enough for the Fire Lord?_

The words echoed in her ears, making her shake in his arms. He tightened his hold on her as she moaned into his mouth, angling her head into his. Her lips were stinging, her head buzzing from adrenaline and arousal. His body practically vibrated against hers, his hips pressing into hers with a rough grind.

A groan left him as their mouths parted. He immediately attached to her neck, teeth scoring her pulse point, sending thrills exploding down her sides, tingling in her nipples and spiraling lower, right into the heart of her.

“So beautiful,” he managed, breathing hard as his mouth made little red prints on her neck. She grasped his head and pulled his mouth back to hers, feeling wild, out of control. The kiss she gave him was carnal, her teeth scoring his lower lip and tugging on it. His eyes blazed in the dim lighting as she released him. Then he kissed her again, the back of her head pressing hard against the wall.

Her hips shifted against his, and he gave let out a stuttering exhale against her mouth as his body reacted. His hand slipped down, into the slit in her dress, hand spreading on the outside of her upper thigh and lifting it up around his muscular thigh. Her whole body thrilled at his touch, at the possessive promises that simple gesture was making, at the way the fires beneath her skin turned into a roaring blaze.

She kissed him even harder, their bodies shifting against each other’s in a hard, carnal grind against the wall.

“ _A-hem!_ I’m so sorry to interrupt, Fire Lord Zuko…” a cultured male voice said in disapproving tones, causing Suki to have a mini-heart attack. She jumped in Zuko’s arms, her mouth leaving his with a gasp as she turned her head toward the source. Councilman Guo stood in the corridor looking unfazed by the scene he’d rounded the corner and come upon. She hadn’t even heard him coming. So much for her situational awareness.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Zuko growled, turning to his councilor with an angry expression on his face. “What do you want, Guo?”

Instead of looking contrite or embarrassed, which was what Suki had totally expected of him, Zuko reacted to Guo’s unwanted intrusion with blazing-hot anger, his lipstick-smudged lips pulling back over his teeth in a snarl. Guo lifted one iron-gray eyebrow and glanced from Suki to Zuko and back again.

“Fen was looking for you. It seems the time has come for you to make a speech to your guests.”

“ _Motherfu_ —“ Zuko bit out, stepping back ‘from her just a little bit, though he didn’t let go of her. “Tell him I’ll be right there.”

“Of course, sire,” Guo said, with a respectful nod, though he was staring at Suki in open disapproval. “I’ll relay your message. You might consider making yourself more… _presentable_.”

“ _GO_ ,” Zuko snarled, breathing hard, looking as if he wanted to set the man on fire. Suki kind of knew how he felt. Guo bowed again, turned smartly on his heel and disappeared around the corner. Zuko exhaled and turned back to face her.

Their gazes met with a spark and she knew that he wanted nothing more than to sink against her again. She wanted that too, but the spell had been broken, and reality was starting to filter back. Their careful plans were waiting, and there they were, groping like horny teenagers.

Zuko’s angry gaze softened as he lifted his hand, brushing back her hair. “Suki…”

“We can talk about… _everything…_ later, okay? They’re all waiting. It’s time,” she said, pushing herself off of the wall and dropping her arms from his body. She let out a breath that was none-too-steady, her knees still knocking together a little.

“Of course,” he said, and tugged at his clothing, surreptitiously readjusting himself. He wiped a hand down his face, smearing the traces of her lipstick down his chin. She laughed, a little giddy and reached out wiping it from his face gently.

He captured her fingers when she started to lower arm and their hands twisted together in a tight clench. “I don’t want to go out there.”

“You have to.”

Zuko nodded; it was nothing he hadn’t already known. He pulled her in close to him and tucked his face against her neck for one brief moment. She felt another bone-deep thrill slide through her as he breathed in her scent and landed a hot, wet kiss in the hollow just below her ear. “When this is all over…”

“Yes,” she said thickly as he withdrew. “When it’s over…”

Zuko kissed her again, slowly, his thumb tilting her chin up. It was over too quickly though, and he slid away, marching away from her with forced purpose in his steps, as if afraid of what he might do if he didn’t walk away immediately.

His sudden abandonment left her reeling, spun about in a sea of confusion, want and aching need. Her hands, sweaty, missing the feel of him, clenched at her sides. She bit her swollen, smudged lips and breathed out, trying to make her heart stop racing.

Her respite was as brief as his kiss though. Her eyes flew open and she checked the fan holstered to her thigh, squared her shoulders and then marched back into the ballroom.

She had a job to do and the whole of the Fire Nation depended on it. Her complicated love life was just going to have to wait.

* * *

Azula pushed away from the slightly damp hands of Councilor Osamu, who had spent the better part of their dance asking asinine questions about her travels. She had started to feel overwhelmed, the need to flee from the bright lights in the ballroom and find someplace quiet, some place that hostile eyes wouldn’t leer at her, and whispers wouldn’t follow her wherever she went.

_I have to focus. Sokka told me to focus. I can’t fall apart tonight. I can’t check out…_

But the urge to retreat into that safe place she had created away from the chaos of her life was too tempting, her instincts too close to the surface. She closed her eyes as Osamu, who hadn’t noticed her retreat, babbled in her ear about arranging an advantageous marriage to one of his cousins. She hadn’t been paying attention to most of what he’d been saying, but she had a feeling he was making the offer to marry her off.

The idea was laughable.

He touched her shoulder with his damp hands and she jerked away from him, fire suddenly in her hand. “Don’t touch me,” she snarled, whirling on him with a hot swipe that had her brother’s councilor stumbling back into another couple dancing beside them. Rage welled in her.

There were too many people. Too many expectations. Too much pain.

“Princess Azula, I didn’t mean any offense,” Osamu was saying, but she ignored him. People were staring at her, whispering. She heard someone call her crazy. She breathed hard, fighting the urge to throw a handful of blue flame at the whisperer.

Didn’t they know who she was? Didn’t they remember their princess? They had feared her once. Respected her. And then everything had unraveled. Her father was gone, locked away. Her mother was a woman she didn’t recognize, with the family she had wanted more than she had wanted her daughter. Her brother was a stranger. She was nothing now. Insane. Unhinged. Broken.

_A baby-killer._

She bit down on her lower lip until blood burst across her tongue with a salty hot tang.

_Not my fault. Not my fault. Not my fault…_

Panic filled her, chasing the blood with a bitter sting and she felt it surging over her with its sick, familiar swell. The flames in her hands crackled and gushed, promising pain. Memories spilled across her vision.

_The fear on their faces was so familiar. How those men who had hurt her had pleaded when they’d seen what she was, what she could do… How everything had burned beneath her hands. There had been nothing but flame and screams and in the midst of the hell storm; a woman wailing in agony that went beyond the burns on her skin…that went to her soul…_

_Not my fault…not my fault…not my fault…_

A hand slipped around her waist, face pressing into her neck.

“What’s real?” Sokka whispered against her neck as his familiar scent filled her. She took a deep breath and the memories faded to distant, half-remembered nightmares. “What’s real, Azula?”

“You’re real,” she whispered, dropping her hands as Sokka’s arms tightened around her, keeping her grounded and in the present.

“I’m real. Come back to me,” he said, his breath warm and reassuring against her ear. She blinked, and the panic attack faded with a mewling whimper. She found herself staring at a small circle of her brother’s courtiers, with Osamu chief among them, looking at her with fear and apprehension.

“You’ll have to forgive Princess Azula,” Sokka said smoothly, his arms still around her. “She’s easily excitable.”

“And who are you?”

Sokka pulled a sharp smile, so unlike his usual, easy grin. Sunk deep within his Tazeo guise, he carried himself differently, with swagger and deadly intention. Azula had seen men and women alike cower at his approach. He looked like a dangerous man, one who could kill at a moment’s notice. Even his eyes were hard.

“I’m her bodyguard,” he said and took a menacing step toward Osamu. “And I didn’t like how you were putting your hands all over her.”

“Tazeo, back off,” she said smartly just as the orchestra finished the song with a flourish, leaving the crowd around them to burst into applause. The people around them were still watching Azula with wary disquiet, although they seemed more frightened of Sokka now. Osamu’s gaze narrowed on him  for a moment and then he turned his face toward the stairs, where Zuko standing beside his dandy of a secretary, the two Kyoshi Warriors who had been guarding him openly all night—both of them looking angry about something—and the servant who had announced everyone’s arrival.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the Fire Nation, our honored host, Fire Lord Zuko!” the servant said, and bowed as he stepped back to give Zuko the stage.

Sokka’s arms tightened on her again.

“Are you ready?” he whispered against her skin as the crowd in the ballroom applauded Zuko. Her brother looked pale and a little disheveled. Azula nodded and she felt Sokka’s hand slip into her large sleeve. He pulled the dagger she had strapped to her forearm and she felt him tensing.

Zuko’s gaze searched through the crowd until he met her gaze. He saw Sokka and took a deep breath, glancing down at the card in his hand. Sokka very slowly pulled the knife from her sleeve, palming it out of sight.

“Thank you all for attending tonight. It is my greatest pleasure to host the finest men and women of the Fire Nation and welcome to welcome you all into my home. I have long sought to bring peace and joy to my people, and I hope tonight will spark the fires of celebration throughout the Nation.” There was a smattering of applause and Zuko handed the card back to Fen, and then held up his hands for silence. Fen looked surprised as the crowd hushed again. “I just want to take this moment to say that I’m extremely grateful for all of the hard work done by the servants in my employ. Without them, we would have nothing. Their hard work is greatly appreciated.”

There was a muttering in the crowd and Azula smirked to herself. Trust Zuko to thank the _help._ Most of the people in the room probably didn’t even know the names of servants who had worked for them their whole lives. Actually thanking them for their service wouldn’t even occur to them. It just simply wasn’t done.

“I’d also like to thank my family for joining me tonight. My Uncle Iroh has traveled here all the way from Ba Sing Se. It’s a pleasure to have him back with us,” Zuko said, gesturing to their Uncle, who held up his steaming cup of tea in acknowledgement. He was surrounded by a bevy of older women. Azula rolled her eyes.

“The pleasure is all mine!” Iroh said, to general laughter.

Zuko clapped with everyone else, and then said as he turned to find her in the crowd again, “And of course, my sister, Princess Azula, has come back to the Fire Nation after many years away. I just wanted to say how wonderful it is to have you back with us and to tell you that you are always welcome here. This is your home and always will be,” Zuko said seriously, and the polite smile on Azula’s face slowly slid off. She stared at Zuko, forgetting for moment where they were, and what was about to happen.

A polite applause flowed around the ballroom and faded quickly. Apparently word of the small altercation she’d had with Osamu and Sokka had gotten around quickly. Or else the people of the Fire Nation hadn’t forgotten her myriad of crimes.

Her chin lifted. “Thank you.”

Zuko nodded at her and then turned back to face his people. “And with that being said, please…everyone…enjoy yourselves.”

That was the signal.

Sokka kissed the back of her neck, sending shivers down her spine. Then he released her and started toward the stairs as Zuko walked down them, his attention seemingly on the crowd, and not on the strange man walking purposefully toward him.

Sokka pulled out the knife. It flashed in the air and someone screamed. At the last second, Zuko’s attention snapped to Sokka and an alarmed look came over his face. Sokka swiped at him with the knife, and Zuko stumbled back into the Kyoshi Warriors who had followed him down the stairs. The two women fell back as Sokka advanced on Zuko with a snarl.

“ASSASSIN!” someone shouted in near hysterics.

“DEATH TO THE FIRE LORD!”

“I don’t think so!” Suki said, coming out of nowhere, just as Sokka was about to bring the knife down into Zuko’s heart. She had her fan out, the gold glinting in the bright lights. The fan caught the edges of the knife and knocked it away, though he still kept it in his hand.

“Bitch!” he snarled, and went for her.

Suki avoided the knife slash, catching his wrist with her forearm and turning the blow. They wrestled for a moment and then her foot came up and she kicked him in the chest. He stumbled down the stairs, straight into Azula.

Sokka’s arm immediately went around her and he wrapped his other hand up in her hair and yanked her head back. He put the knife to her throat as she struggled.

“What are you doing? Let me go!”

“AZULA!” Zuko exclaimed in shock as the crowd gave a collective gasp and people stumbled away from them in confusion.

“Someone call the guards!” someone shouted in a commanding voice. Azula didn’t see who it was.

Seven red-clad figures came out of the crowd, golden fans opening with a flick. Azula recognized the Kyoshi Warriors instantly. The Kyoshi Warriors were the only people in the crowd with weapons, other than the Firebenders in attendance. The Firebenders looked too shocked by the sudden attack to do much of anything but stare in horror as the scene unfolded.

_Idiots._

“ _Ah-ah_ , ladies…” Sokka hissed at the women, pushing the knife into Azula’s throat. “Try it and I’ll open her throat. IF ANYONE TRIES ANYTHING I’LL FUCKING KILL HER!”

“You do that and you’re dead where you stand,” Zuko snarled from the stairs, flames dancing in his outstretched palms. The two Warriors in full uniform had stepped in front of him to protect him, but he elbowed them aside, standing shoulder to shoulder with Suki.

“Let her go, you bastard!”

Azula’s brows lifted at the familiar voice and she spotted Ty Lee out of the corner of her eye, fear turning her face pale. She had a fan open and a short sword in her hand.

“Stay back, Ty Lee! Tazeo, what are you doing?” Azula said, struggling in his grip.

“What I’ve wanted to do since we met, you little bitch,” he growled, tugging painfully on her hair. She was going to make him pay for that later. “You really think I was in love with you? I just wanted to get close to your brother! And you led me right to him!”

“BASTARD!” she screeched, tugging at the hand holding the knife. Sokka’s breath was hot against her neck.

“Let her go! Take me instead!” Zuko said, charging down the stairs.

There was a general hue and cry at that, but Zuko ignored them. His face was red with rage, underlit by orange flame, making him look sinister and regal. For the first time, she realized that her brother wasn’t the teenaged boy she remembered. He’d grown into a man since she’d been gone. And even though the attack was a fake she had a feeling that if someone really did try and hurt her, Zuko would turn into a dangerous man indeed.

That knowledge was strange and disorienting.

“No, Zuko stop!” Azula said.

“I don’t know what you want,” Zuko said as the Kyoshi Warriors flanked him. There was activity in the ballroom as the palace guards swooped in.

“Tell them to back off, Fire Lord, or I’ll slit her pretty little throat right here, right now.”

Zuko glared daggers at Sokka, and then nodded, though it was Suki who said, “Everyone stay back. That’s an order.”

The Kyoshi Warriors and palace guards stopped, eyes wary.

“Good, good…keep them all back, Fire Lord…”

“What do you want?” Zuko asked in a measured voice, making a staying gesture with his hand that Azula had a feeling wasn’t directed at Sokka. “Gold?”

“I want you dead.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Suki spit. “You’re outnumbered. What did you think was going to happen? That’d you’d kill the Fire Lord in front of a thousand witnesses and get away with it?”

Sokka’s voice rose in volume, so that everyone in attendance could hear him. “I never thought I’d get away it…but I had to try. The Smoke Demons don’t allow for failures. I…I believe in the cause… You…you need to be stopped. For the good of the Fire Nation.”

Zuko’s gaze narrowed. “Are you willing to die for your cause?”

“Please, Tazeo…” Azula said, and he yanked her hair to silence her. Her scalp was starting to hurt. _He’s going to pay for this later._

“I have no choice! If I fail the Smoke Demons will kill me!” he said.

“Not if I protect you,” Zuko said. “I swear on my honor no harm will come to you within these palace walls. My dungeons are secure. I’ll protect you from the Smoke Demons in exchange for my sister. And information.”

“I won’t tell you anything!”

Zuko smirked at him. “You will. Or I’ll order Ty Lee to put that sword through your back. She could already have killed you ten times over. Suki could have put her dagger in your forehead from thirty paces and you would be dead before you could harm my sister. That they haven’t done it yet is only because I’ve ordered them not to. I can be merciful. Can you say the same of your masters?”

“There is no mercy in the Smoke Demons. I have failed. My life is forfeit.”

“Put down the knife,” Suki said. “Put it down and let the princess go. Tell us what we want and your life will be spared.”

“This I promise you,” Zuko said solemnly.

Sokka hesitated for one moment, and then dropped the knife at his feet. Azula slammed her elbow back into his stomach and turned on him. She punched him across the face and he went down on his knees as Ty Lee and two other Warriors rushed at him. Ty Lee put her sword to his throat as the other two women caught his arms and held him, though he wasn’t struggling.

“Asshole,” Azula said as her uncle materialized out of the crowd and put his hand on her shoulder.

Zuko stepped up to him, kicking the knife away with a grim smile of satisfaction. Suki picked the knife up, her face a blank mask. Sokka lifted his chin, blood pouring out of his nose from where she had punched him.

“I’ll tell you everything I know about the Smoke Demons.”

“I’ll be happy to hear it. Throw him in the dungeons until I’m ready to speak to him,” Zuko commanded as the palace guards pushed the stunned crowd aside. They clamped him in irons, and dragged him to his feet as Ty Lee and the other Kyoshi Warriors backed off. He didn’t struggle.

“Thank you for your mercy, Fire Lord,” Sokka spat as they dragged him out of the room, but Zuko just glared after him for a moment. Then he turned his attention on Azula, who lifted her chin.

“Are you all right, Azula?”

“I think so.”

“Good. Guards, arrest the princess!” Zuko commanded, pointing at her, and Azula’s mouth fell open. She looked around, frantically, and then met her brother’s gaze again. The only expression on his face was pity. The palace guards were stunned for a moment, and she heard Ty Lee’s shout of shocked disbelief from behind her.

Then the guards moved in, clamping irons on her wrists before she could fight back. Iroh backed off, looking as shocked as she felt by the sudden turn of events.

“ZUKO! What are you doing?!” she hissed through her teeth.

“You brought an assassin into the palace and you want me to believe you didn’t know what he had planned? You’ve tried to kill me before, Azula. I won’t make the mistake of trusting you again. Put her in the dungeon in a cell beside her boyfriend’s. I don’t even want to look at her.”

“ZUKO! ZUKO! NO! He lied to me! I didn’t know!”

“TAKE HER AWAY!” Zuko bellowed, turning his back on her. Azula struggled, trying to get free of the hands dragging her out of the room.

“ZUKO!” she screamed over her shoulder at him, but there was no mercy in him to spare and her cries fell on deaf ears.

Just as planned.


	12. Chapter 12

t worked. Zuko couldn’t believe that it had worked. And no one had gotten hurt, something he’d been afraid of. Ty Lee had definitely looked like she’d wanted to run Sokka through with her sword at one point, but he’d managed to catch her before she had.

_That punch to the face Azula gave him wasn’t planned though. Guess he’ll have to take that up with her._

Zuko felt grimly satisfied as he turned to face his seneschal, who had appeared out of the crowd with an angry expression on his face.

“How did this happen, Jiang?” he demanded.

“Sire, I do not know,” Jiang said, sweat popping out on his forehead. “Every guest was thoroughly searched upon arrival to the palace, and before they were allowed entrance to the ballroom. _No one_ , other than the guards and the Kyoshi Warriors were armed when they entered the ballroom.”

“Did you search my sister?”

“I…” Jiang blanched white. “No, sire.”

“Precisely,” Zuko said, and didn’t feel the slightest bit of shame for making Jiang seem incompetent. It had been their plan all along to smuggle the weapon in with Azula and if her weapon had been discovered, Suki was to pass her dagger on to Sokka in some way. That Jiang hadn’t thought to search Azula didn’t sit well with him.

“Assassins always find a way,” Suki said beside him and he turned on her. A pang ran through his middle as their gazes met, and he was suddenly back in that hallway, wrapped around her body, kissing her…

He shook himself out of his fevered thoughts and forced himself to concentrate on the task at hand. He saw Jiang glance at Suki and then turn to him, a business-like look on his face. All around them, guests were whispering, scrambling around. A few of the women had swooned. He saw Lady Shura clutching Iroh, sobbing about something or other, as his Uncle tried and failed to extricate his arm from her claw-like grasp.

“Sire, what are your orders?”

“Lock down the ball. Search everyone and then release them. They’re all to leave the palace _tonight_. I want every room swept for assassins.”

“You believe there are others?” Jiang asked, his eyebrow arching as Fen puffed up beside Zuko.

“I believe my sister and her lover just tried to murder me. I don’t trust anyone in this palace,” Zuko said sharply. If Jiang took that personally, he didn’t let it show. He nodded solemnly and then glanced at Suki again.

“Captain, we should increase the number of Royal guards on the Fire Lord. For his safety.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Suki said. “The Kyoshi Warriors will protect the Fire Lord at all costs. Save your men and search the palace. After all, that’s two assassins I’ve taken down that have gotten past _your_ guards, Jiang.”

Now Jiang looked appalled, but he seemed unable to articulate a comeback good enough to satisfy him. Zuko touched Suki’s hand, their fingers brushing briefly. Suki moved away though, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at his seneschal with open hostility.

“You heard the Captain,” Zuko said smoothly. “Follow my orders.”

Jiang put his fist over his heart and bowed. “Yes, Fire Lord Zuko.”

And with that, he hustled away, taking his guards with him. Zuko saw the other Kyoshi Warriors standing around them in their Fire Nation clothing. They had their fans out as they stood in a protective circle around him. The ball guests looked at them warily; they’d seen the Kyoshi Warriors in action before and didn’t want to cross them.

“Fen, get these people out of my palace,” Zuko said shortly, turning on his secretary, who was looking white-faced and harried. “And call my Council to session immediately.”

“What are you going to do? You arrested your sister!” Fen said in a scandalized tone. “You…you can’t put the princess in the _dungeon!_ ”

“Why not? I put my father in prison. Seems like a family tradition,” Zuko snorted. “Do as I say, Fen.”

“Of course, sire,” Fen said, and then bustled off, making preparations to dismiss the guests. Zuko didn’t care. He’d never wanted to have the stupid ball, and the sooner it was over, the better.

“We should get you somewhere safe while the guests leave,” Suki said and he turned and met her gaze. For the first time he noticed that her lipstick was still smudged at the corners. His groin tightened and he remembered, all too well, how she’d been wrapped around him as he’d pressed her against the wall… “Zuko?”

He shook himself again.

“Sorry. Have to focus. You’re right.”

Suki let a little grin slide along her lips; he knew that she knew where his mind had been. Her smile faded a moment later though and she went into bodyguard mode, snapping orders to the other Kyoshi Warriors. The women swarmed around him and the people of his Nation stepped back in fear just as Fen, standing at the top of the stairs, held up his hands for quiet.

Zuko didn’t stay behind to listen to Fen make his excuses. He didn’t care what his guests thought of the abrupt end of the ball, so long as it was over. He marched out of the ballroom with a thousand shocked voices muttering behind him.

Suki was half a step behind him, as protocol dictated, but he reached out, grasping her waist and slowing until they were side by side. She glanced at him and then looked away as their procession marched straight for Zuko’s council chambers.

He wasn’t surprised to find Jiang’s men in the corridors, or to see several of his Councilor’s already making their way toward the chamber. He was the last one to enter, the Kyoshi Warrior’s trailing behind him like a flock of beautiful, exotic birds; he found it odd to look at them without their usual makeup and uniforms on.

“Sire, are you all right?” Madam Biyu asked, clutching the string of black pearls around her neck. She looked shocked and a bit faint, but that didn’t stop her from glancing at his hand on Suki’s waist with an arching eyebrow.

“This is an outrage!” Bai shouted before Zuko could respond, his chins wobbling. “I cannot believe Princess Azula would do something like this!”

“Yes, is there proof that she was in on the attempt?” Lady Lian asked, her hands on her hips. “It appeared that she was as much a victim as _you_ , my Lord!”

The others chimed in, all expect Guo, who was standing at the head of the Council table, his hands flat on the surface, his shoulders hunched. As usual, Guo’s quiet reserve was a calm respite amidst the turmoil and Zuko caught his gaze, looking for some of kind of sense.

“Everyone, quiet,” Guo said, taking Zuko’s silent cue. His voice wasn’t raised, but it carried nonetheless. The other Councilors quieted immediately, turning to Guo as Zuko let his hand drop from Suki’s waist and strode forward.

“I have cause to believe that Azula was sent here by the same terrorist group that burned the village of Rinchaka Falls to the ground last month.”

“The Smoke Demons,” Osamu said. “So they _are_ real.”

“It would appear so,” he said, looking at each of his Councilors in turn. “It also seems that…Tazeo, I think his name was, is willing to talk. I need information about the Smoke Demons and if he’s willing to provide it, I can’t pass up the opportunity. Maybe we can find where they’re hiding, who’s in charge and how their assassins keep getting into my palace.”

“It _does_ seem suspicious. You didn’t suspect your sister of any duplicity?” Madame Biyu asked skeptically.

“I’d hoped…” Zuko said sadly, and then shook his head as he met Suki’s gaze. “Never the less. She’ll talk or she’ll be branded a traitor to the Crown. And I’ll hang her accomplice before the whole of the Fire Nation if I have to send a message to my enemies.”

“When are you going to interrogate them?” Bai asked.

“Tomorrow at dawn. Perhaps a night in the dungeons will loosen their tongues,” Zuko said, looking from one Councilor to another, waiting for a reaction. Only Guo had one; he nodded solemnly.

“Until then we must see to your safety, sire. I think it best if you retired to your suite under full guard.”

“I agree,” Suki said, touching the fan at her waist. Guo glanced at her and Zuko saw the normally calm Councilor’s lip curl a little. The expression was gone in the next instant though, as Guo drew himself up.

“The Captain is correct. I think we would all sleep better knowing that you are somewhere safe.”

“We’ll meet again in the morning after the interrogation. Ladies, gentlemen,” Zuko said and then swept out of the room, Suki and the other Warriors following in his wake. He met his uncle in the corridor, looking concerned. There was a crimson red lip print on Iroh’s round cheek. Zuko eyed it, brow lifting.

“Sire?” Aiko asked, stepping forward and blocking Iroh from coming any closer to Zuko. Zuko waved her off with one hand.

“Thank you, Aiko, but my Uncle is definitely _not_ one of my enemies.” Aiko glanced at Suki, who nodded. Aiko moved back into formation and Iroh reached out, clasping Zuko’s shoulder.

“Are you well, nephew?”

“I’m fine, Uncle. Better than you appear to be,” Zuko said as his Uncle fell into step beside him, Suki on his other side. He wanted to reach out and take her hand, but she had her fan in one hand and a sword in the other.  As a body, his entourage made its way up the long staircase toward his suite.

“Lady Shura,” Iroh said wryly, wiping at his face with the back of his hand. “She’s always been very, uh, _friendly._ ”

“Better you than me. She keeps sneaking into my suite,” Zuko said, fighting a smile despite it all.

“Naked,” Suki piped up.

“Oh really? She did the same thing to me once. She was married and had four strapping sons at the time, if I recall correctly.” His uncle was a bit red in the face.

“The two of you…have you ever…?”

“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell, nephew.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, making a face. Iroh’s face went even redder. “Seriously?”

“She was a great beauty in her youth, long before her marriage, I’ll have you know. I think she had designs on marrying me before my father insisted I marry your Aunt instead, an arrangement I found much more agreeable. Lady Shura never quite forgave me though. Although that didn’t stop her from trying to marry your father as well.”

“She tried to marry my father?”

“Tried is a good word. More like ‘attempted to trap’. Your Aunt couldn’t stand her; they had a great row at a banquet once. It was the only time I ever saw Kiyo be impolite to anyone.”

Zuko glanced askance at his uncle. He’d never heard this story before. His uncle never spoke of his late Aunt Kiyo; she’d died giving birth to Lu Ten, long before Zuko had been born. A soft expression came over his uncle’s bearded face for a moment and then he smiled slightly.

“You loved Aunt Kiyo.”

Iroh looked stricken, his footsteps halting a little before he hastened forward. “Oh yes, very much. I am afraid Lady Shura never stood a chance. No other woman would do for me after I fell for Kiyo.”

Zuko glanced at Suki and then back to Iroh. “I know the feeling.”

Iroh had followed his gaze, his smile flattening into a thin line. “We need to talk, nephew.”

“Later,” Zuko said in an undertone. He’d purposefully been keeping the conversation light and off the topic of the assassination attempt. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the other Kyoshi Warriors, but there were always ears in the palace, lurking.

They reached the top of the stairs and Suki, Aiko and Tam swept into the room, checking for assassins. After a long wait, they came back out and Suki nodded at him.

“The suite is clear, sire,” Suki said to him, meeting his eye. He felt that swoop in his middle again and wanted nothing more than to reach out and pull her against him. Suki was all business though, turning to her Warriors. “Qing, Mei Lin, Tam and Xuiying, the four of you are taking the first shift. I want two of you at the bottom of the stairs and two of you here, guarding the outside of this suite at all times. The rest of you, go get some sleep. You’ll change shifts at dawn.  I’ll guard Zuko from inside the suite, since this damned door makes it impossible to hear anything through. Ty Lee, you can relieve me at… Wait, where’s Ty Lee?”

Zuko glanced at the faces of the women before him, only noticing for the first time that the hazel-eyed acrobat was nowhere to be seen.

Aiko stepped forward. “I saw her take off down in the ballroom. I thought you’d sent her off on an errand.”

Zuko exchanged dark looks with Suki, who then turned back to Aiko. “Do you know where she was going?”

Aiko shrugged. “Of course not, Captain.”

“Damn… Well, the rest of you see if you can find her when you go back to your rooms. Maybe she’ll turn up,” Suki said, biting down on her lower lip. “You have your orders. Dismissed.”

Zuko walked into his suite with Iroh and Suki on his heels, leaving Mei Lin and Qing standing outside the door and the rest of the Warriors trudging down the stairs at a fast pace, despite their long skirts. Suki closed the heavy doors behind them and threw the bolt home.

She started to say something, but Zuko gestured her and Iroh into his bedroom, just in case they were overheard, even through the thick wood. The moment they were inside, he closed the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

“That went better than expected,” he said to her as Iroh sank into a seat, still scrubbing at the lipstick on his face and staining his snowy beard. “And I have a few suspects.”

“Jiang,” Suki said with certainty, crossing her arms over her chest. “He didn’t search Azula.”

Zuko nodded. “He also made sure that she and Sokka had free access to the palace—and me. Azula came to my suite unannounced and unguarded. Jiang knew she was here and he didn’t inform me.”

“His men control the flow of people in and out of the palace. That first assassin could have walked right in the front door and Jiang would have let him pass, just like he did Azula and Sokka.”

“Definitely suspicious,” Iroh spoke up. “But it certainly begs the question of why Jiang feels the need to orchestrate your death through an assassin when he has such free access to you. He could do the deed himself at any time.”

Zuko nodded. “You’re right, Uncle. I thought the same of General Mak. If Jiang or Mak are working for the Smoke Demons, why bring in outside assassins to do a job both of them are well-suited and well-positioned to do? Why on earth would they recruit my sister to do it instead?”

Suki looked thoughtful. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. Azula and Sokka said they want to put someone of _their_ choosing on the throne instead of you. They told Azula it would be her, but she thinks they’d kill her the first chance they got.”

“They’re using her as a scapegoat. Send in the disgraced princess to do the deed. The people of the Fire Nation would never allow her to take the throne. They wouldn’t stand for a murderer on the throne; even my father knew that when he had my mother poison my grandfather. He had to make Azulon’s death natural, so no one would question it or him. If they knew Azula assassinated me, then whoever’s orchestrating this can get rid of her without anyone objecting. That just leaves _you_ , Uncle.”

“Me?”

“You’d inherit the throne if something happened to me and Azula.”

Iroh looked stricken. “I assure you I am not behind this.”

Zuko smiled. “I know you’re not, Uncle. If there’s _one_ thing I’m sure of, it’s that you want nothing to do with the throne.”

“Okay,” Suki said, pacing the floor, her red skirts swishing around her legs. Zuko couldn’t help but stare as her shapely leg peeped out of the slit as she turned around. “We have at least one suspect, whose motives are unclear. Anyone else?”

Zuko sank down onto the end of his bed. “Where did Ty Lee go?”

Suki whirled on him. “You don’t think… Not Ty Lee! She adores you and she’d never do anything to hurt Azula!”

“I don’t think she’s involved…but she disappeared. That’s not like her. That’s suspicious if nothing else.”

“I’m sure there’s an explanation for it. If there’s one thing _I_ ’ _m_ sure of it’s that none of my girls would do this. Whatever Ty Lee is doing, I have to trust it’s benign,” Suki said forcefully and then glanced out the window where night had slid over the Caldera like a thick, humid blanket. “Azula and Sokka have been in the dungeon for almost an hour and by now it’ll be around the palace that you’re going to interrogate them at dawn. If they’re right about the Smoke Demons and their silence policy, sometime between now and then, someone is bound to try and kill them. I need to get down there.”

Zuko nodded and turned to Iroh. “Could you give us a moment, Uncle?”

“Of course,” his uncle said, standing, a resolute look on his face. He glanced at Suki and then back at him with a frown and then walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Zuko wondered what was bothering Iroh. He shook his head and turned back to Suki.

It was the first time they’d been alone since their kiss in the hallway and he keenly felt the weight of that moment stringing between them as Suki slowly lifted her gaze to his.

“Suki…”

“Follow me down in forty-five minutes. Wait at the bottom of the tunnel until I get there. There’s probably going to be a lot of traffic around the stables with everyone leaving, but Sokka said the tunnel opens up into a storage room and—“

“Suki,” he interrupted her and she stopped, biting down on her lower lip. She clutched her fan in her hands, little spots of color in her cheeks.

“We don’t have time to do this right now,” she whispered.

“I know.”

“I need to go.”

“I know.”

“They’re in danger.”

“I know.”

“Then don’t look at me like that.”

“I’m not,” he said, reaching out and taking one of her hands. She squeezed it tightly and then smiled a little as they stared at one another for a few moments. So much passed between them, entirely unspoken. His heart was racing. He wanted to kiss her again, but he didn’t.

“Zuko…”

He let go of her hand and walked over the door, pressing in the same spot that he’d seen Sokka press. The wall swung open to reveal the hidden staircase. Suki took up a small shuttered lantern. “Be careful. I’ll follow you soon.”

“I will,” she said to him and started down the stairs. She got three stairs down, but stopped and came back, reaching up to clasp her hand on the back of his neck. She kissed him all too briefly and then pulled back. “When all of this is over…”

“Yeah,” he said, excitement and hunger raging in him at the weight in her voice and what it meant. Her kiss had ignited him all over again. Suki nodded and then started decisively down the stairs. Zuko watched her go until the stairs twisted out of sight. He closed the wall and turned to see that his Uncle was standing in the doorway.

A dark look of disapproval was on Iroh’s normally calm face as he stood there, his arms folded across his expansive chest.

“What?” Zuko shot at him irritably.

“You and Suki… The rumors are true.”

Zuko rolled his eyes. He was getting thoroughly tired of hearing about those damned rumors. “They’re not.”

“Oh?”

“I haven’t slept with her.”

“ _Yet,”_ Iroh said forcefully, taking Zuko aback. He stared at his uncle in surprise.

“You don’t approve? _You?_ ”

“I would never have thought it of you, Zuko. To dally with _Suki_ , of all people! Shame on you!”

Zuko blinked at him. “I thought you liked Suki!”

“I adore her, but she’s not—“

“What? Is it because she’s my bodyguard? Because she’s from the Earth Kingdom? Or because you don’t think she’s good enough or something? I can’t believe you, Uncle! You’re just like my Councilors! Well, I have news for you, Uncle, I’m in love with her! And nothing anyone says will change that, so get used to it!”

Iroh looked at him in confusion. “I don’t think that…I…  Zuko…she’s _Sokka’s girlfriend!_ ”

Zuko stopped the rant he’d been building and let out a small laugh of relief. Realization hit him and he heaved out a breath. “Oh! Oh, you don’t know!”

“Know what?!” Iroh exclaimed. “That my nephew is having an affair with one of his best friend’s girlfriends! I just saw it with my own eyes. And I am afraid I cannot approve, nephew!”

“But we’re not. And she’s not,” Zuko said, tugging his hair down. “She and Sokka broke up. I didn’t realize you didn’t know.”

“Oh,” Iroh said, nonplussed, uncrossing his arms.

“Yeah,” he said emphatically, putting his crown down on his dressing stand. He reached for the dark clothing he’d draped there that afternoon. “They just broke up.”

“And those rumors?”

“Untrue. Before tonight we only kissed once, the night of the first assassin’s attack. We got caught though, and you know how things are. Suddenly we were having a torrid affair.”

“But I heard rumors about the two of you months ago. They’re talking about it in Ba Sing Se. The Fire Lord and his bodyguard!”

Zuko whirled on him. “ _Ba Sing Se?_ ”

“Yes.  I did not believe them, as I know how these things get started, but the rumors persisted.”

Zuko didn’t know what to think about that. Maybe he didn’t see himself clearly at all. Maybe anyone who watched him when he was with Suki could tell how he felt about her.

“Spirits…”

“You’re in love with her?”

Zuko looked at the floor. “I think I am.”

“What are you going to do about that?”

“I’m not sure yet,” he admitted. “I need to make sure the Smoke Demons don’t manage to kill me first. Then I can think about what this means.”

“Do you want my advice?”

“Even if I didn’t, I know you’d give it anyway, Uncle.”

“Good point,” Iroh said with a smile that faded. He put his hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “If you love her, do not let _anything_ come between you.”

Zuko understood him perfectly. He squared his shoulders and promised, “I won’t, Uncle.”

* * *

“I hate this.”

“And I hate being punched in the face, but here we are,” Sokka said sullenly, rubbing his jaw. Azula made a derisive sound.

“You pulled my hair.”

“I had to make it look real.”

“So did I,” she said with a bite in her voice and then kicked at the bars with a clang. “I hate this place!”

“Well, it’s a dungeon. You were expecting mints on the pillows?” Sokka drawled from his crouch against the smooth stone wall, his long arms draped across his knees. His face ached from where Azula had punched him and he had bloody scrapes on his knees from where Zuko’s guards had dragged him across the floor of the palace and down the rough dungeon stairs. They hadn’t been gentle.

Then again, he _had_ just tried to assassinate their Fire Lord, so really, what had he expected? He was finding that being the bad guy wasn’t as much fun as it looked.

 _Well, I had that notion ripped away from me months ago,_ he thought darkly, glancing around at the cell.

For all the finery and grandeur of the Fire Nation palace, the dungeon was definitely more in line with the few prisons he’d encountered over the years. In fact, the Boiling Rock had been nicer than this place; clearly the Fire Lord who had built it wanted his prisoners as uncomfortable as possible.

The dungeon was nothing so much as a deep hole in the ground, accessible only by a narrow, winding staircase. The single cell looked like it had been carved from the black volcanic rock of the Caldera, with a low, irregular ceiling that seemed to press in on them claustrophically. The cell had clearly been designed to hold Firebenders and there was nothing in it that was flammable. There were also no windows that Sokka could see and no candles or lanterns to light the place, and yet there was still a faint red glow. He wondered where the light was coming from; it certainly piqued his scientific interest.

“It’s not our squalid conditions,” Azula said sharply. “I’ve rather gotten used to coming down in the world over the past couple of years. It’s the waiting. I hate _waiting._ ”

He glanced up to see that Azula was pacing the cell, her hands closing and unclosing into tight fists. She looked agitated and panicky. He knew that look. Alarm had him climbing to his feet.

 “Hey, look at me,” Sokka said, reaching out and catching her wrist. Azula stopped and he took her hand, pulling her gently toward him. “Come on, relax. We’re okay. This was part of the plan, remember?”

“I know,” she said as he slowly pried her clenched hands open. There in the dim red glow, he could see that she’d been making bloody red half-moons in her palms, a sure sign that she was trying not to have a panic attack. “But I can’t help but feel trapped. I don’t like feeling trapped.”

“I don’t like being trapped either, but we have to do this. We have to flush out the agent in the palace. Just breathe, okay? Look me in the eyes and breathe. What’s real?”

“ _You are_.” Azula’s amber eyes flicked up and met his and he saw her relax almost immediately. He breathed in a few times and she quickly followed, breathing through her mounting panic. He caressed her palms gently, letting his thumbs sweep over the old scars and bloody marks.

“Do you really think they’re going to come for us tonight?”

“Yes. And if not, then we’ll come up with another plan.”

“What if we fail?”

“We won’t,” he said soothingly and then glanced around the cell. He had to get her mind off of things. “So why do you have a dungeon in the palace anyway?”

Azula stared at him; he knew that she knew he was trying to divert her attention, but she played along anyway. She shrugged. “One of my ancestors built it; I can’t quite remember which one. It’s only meant as a temporary holding cell before the unlucky prisoner was punished, killed, or sent to one of the Fire Nation prisons. Although, it must be said that my father used it quite frequently. He loved throwing anyone who displeased him down here for a few weeks. Little food, little water… He loved breaking them.”

He tried to not to hear the amusement in her voice. “And where’s the light coming from?”

“Mirrors,” Azula said, glancing up at the rocky ceiling. There’s a single candle burning at the top of the stairs and the light bounces off of a series of small mirrors. That way there’s no windows to escape from, and no torches to tend for the gaolers. Keeps it dark in here, but just light enough to see. Not that I need it.”

She pulled her hand back and fire bloomed in her palm. He winced away from the light and she laughed, letting the flame die out almost instantly. He blinked back sparks in his vision.

“You’re definitely useful sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

Sokka smiled a little, rubbing his thumb across her palm. “Occasionally.”

“You’d be dead without me,” she said, offended, though there was an amused smile hesitating at the corners of her red lips.

“I’d be a lot of things without you, Azula,” he said seriously and the amusement faded to a sad expression. She pulled her hands back with a jerk.

 “There’s no point in this, you know,” she said, flinching away from him and walking toward the bars. She put her back to them and crossed her arms over her chest. “So just don’t.”

His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

Azula huffed out and annoyed sigh. “This. Us. Just don’t bother.”

“And why not?”

“You know why.”

Sokka stared at her in confusion. “I don’t.”

“Look…it’s not that I’m not attracted to you, okay? I think we’ve established that,” she said smartly, refusing to look at him and instead staring at the floor. “But really, it’s nothing more than that. Just because you broke up with your girlfriend doesn’t change the fact that you and I aren’t compatible in the slightest.”

“We’re not,” he said flatly.

“Exactly,” she mumbled, digging the toe of her shoe into the pitted stone floor. “Once my brother is safe and the Smoke Demons are taken down, you’ll go back to your life. And that’ll be that.”

Understanding hit him in the face like a speeding lemur-bat. He smiled a little.

“Is that what you think I’m going to do? Abandon you the minute we’re clear of this thing?” he asked softly.

“You will. You know you will. I don’t blame you. I forced you into this charade. You’ve nearly died a dozen times in the past few months, half of those at my hand.”

“You didn’t force me into this, Azula. I did it to save Zuko.”

“But you never trusted me.”

He smiled. “Not a first. I trusted Mai though…and then, after the mine…I trusted _you_. You earned it. You earned my respect.”

“I earned your sympathy,” she said harshly and looked up with a hard expression on her face.  “You feel _sorry_ for me. Poor crazy Azula who nearly killed herself, who can’t keep it together, who wakes you up every night screaming. You must be so tired of me.”

“That’s _not_ how it is.”

But she wasn’t listening. “I know I’m crazy. I _know_ that. Just like I know you’ll leave at the first opportunity. _I_ would. What would make you stay? What do you think will happen when you go back to your old life? You think I’m going to go with you? That everything will be perfect? You haven’t thought that far ahead, but I have. There’s just no point to this, so why bother? And it’s not like I care anyway. Because I don’t. You mean nothing to me!”

Sokka approached her slowly, holding out his hands. When she didn’t shy away, he gently took her hands in his own and leaned down, forcing her to meet his steady gaze. “You’re right.”

Her eyes widened before she locked down her expression into one of indifference. “I am. Of course I am.”

“I _haven’t_ thought that far ahead. The future’s not been something I could think about the past few months. Everything’s been about the here and now. The mission. Staying alive. Staying undetected. And you. You’ve been my world for nearly a year, Azula. For good or bad. I see you for who you really are, and that’s not someone I can just walk away from. Not out of sympathy or obligation, but because somewhere along the way I fell for you. _Hard._ It’s confusing and inconvenient and badly timed and things with Suki are weird, but what I feel for you is real. I have no idea what’s going to happen when we leave here, but I know whatever I do you’ll be there. Somehow.  I’m not going anywhere. I love you and I know you feel the same.”

Azula stared at him in the dark and then looked away. “I don’t know if I’m even capable of love, Sokka.”

The sound of her broken voice and the pain in her gaze hit him like a punch in the gut. “Why do you think that?”

“I’ve never really loved anything. Not in my whole life.”

He brushed her hair back. “You’re risking your life to save your brother’s…I think you know how to love just fine.”

Azula bit down on her lip and then shook her head. “Is that why you think I’m doing this?”

“Isn’t it?”

“I don’t know.”

He leaned in, his forehead against hers. “I know you feel something for me. Admit it.”

Her hands clamped onto his hips, tugging him closer. Her breath stirred against his lips. “I…”

His nose brushed hers, his hands sliding around her slim body. His hands practically shook; touching her had always been forbidden, accompanied by a guilty pang that never went away. The handful of times that his control had weakened and he’d found himself kissing her, his hands molding her body, his own body aching for hers, had never felt satisfying in the slightest.

Those moments had been too brief, broken up by his desperate resolve not to cheat on Suki, and his confusion over how and why his attraction for Azula had grown beyond his ability to ignore.  His feelings for her had invaded him like a conquering army and he’d been left in a shivering ball, utterly addicted to her, knowing he should stop it somehow, but unable to.

Even after he’d started sleeping beside her in order to keep her nightmares at bay, he’d always felt terrible about it. He known it wasn’t right…but he’d done it anyway.

As he slipped his arms around her now, his guilty conscience was nowhere to be found, and as much as his breakup with Suki was still with him and still caused pain in his midsection whenever he thought of her, he knew that what he wanted—who he wanted—was right in front of him.

“You don’t love me,” she whispered against his lips.

“I do. You’re under my skin, Azula… Whatever happens, I need you to know that I _can’t_ leave you. I’m addicted to you.”

“I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone.”

“Maybe not,” he said softly. “But maybe you _want_ someone? It’s okay to want someone, Azula. It’s okay to let someone in.”

“I don’t know _what_ I want…” she started and swallowed heavily, her hands sinking into the front of his shirt.

“Yes, you do,” he said and she breathed out against his mouth. “Admit it.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and tugged him closer.

“You. Dammit, you. You’re the only thing that’s real to me, Sokka. I want you,” she said and then kissed him hard on the mouth. Sokka leaned into her, hungry for her. It was the first kiss between them that hadn’t been tinged with guilt. A soft buzz seemed to arc between their bodies, filling him up with the warm sensation of a low-level electric current. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her shivering body against his.

Azula kissed him with a desperate force, reaching up to sink her fingers into his hair. Her tongue teased his and he groaned into her mouth, angling his head down and to the side.

Everything seemed very far away. Months of tension, of longing, melted away instantly. There was just Azula, in his arms, her electric kiss rushing through him. He could kiss her forever; she was unexpected, unpredictable, exciting. She nipped his lip and smiled against his mouth and then kissing him deep and hard, her nails digging into the back of his neck.

Sokka let it all sink away; the months on the run, the terrible things they’d had to do to survive, that night in Rinchaka Falls, the hard months of learning to understand each other, to reach across the gulf between them and find something worth holding on to.

He never wanted to let go.

“I can’t fucking believe you.”

They jumped and broke apart instantly, realization of where they were—in Zuko’s dungeon—and what they were supposed to be doing—waiting for someone to try and kill them—hit them as the unexpected voice shot through the dark.

Sokka, weaponless, turned toward the bars and saw a dark figure slinking down the narrow steps toward them. The intruder’s agile feet traversed the narrow stairs soundlessly.  They clung to the shadows, their face hidden.

“Who are you?” Sokka commanded as Azula drew up next to him, inhaling sharply through her nose and clutching his hand.  “Show yourself!”

“You never could be trusted, could you? All this time…I’m an idiot for thinking that you were capable of… Well, you screwed the whole thing up, didn’t you? Now you’re going to have to pay!”

“You…?!” Azula whispered beside him, letting go of his hand and walking toward the bars. A tidy little flame burst to life in her palm, flooding the dim dungeon in light.

“Yeah, _me!_ ” Ty Lee said, stepping out of the shadows, an angry expression on her pixie face. “Did you think I wouldn’t come for you, you traitorous _bitch?_ ”

“Ty Lee?” Sokka said in shock, but the acrobat ignored him. She was glaring daggers at Azula.

And there was a crossbow in her hands.


	13. Chapter 13

“ _You’re_ the agent?” Azula said, disbelief spreading through her limbs as the fire danced in her palm. Anger swarmed in her, flooding through her system with a shot of adrenaline. The tip of the arrow looked sharp, barbed, and deadly. Ty Lee’s finger was firmly on the trigger. “Well, I can’t say that I’m that shocked. You turned on _me_ once. Why not my brother as well?”

“No! _You’re_ the traitor!” Ty Lee said through clenched teeth, leveling the crossbow at her. “You and your boyfriend!”

Azula glanced at Sokka and then back at Ty Lee, who stared at them, stone-faced beneath her makeup. The acrobat hadn’t bothered to change out of her gown, but Azula knew the long skirt wouldn’t stop Ty Lee from fighting if it came to that.

She snorted derisively. “I’m sure _that’s_ the part that really sticks in your craw.”

“ _Azula_ ,” Sokka said warningly beside her. She glanced at him; he looked stunned, his gaze fastened to the crossbow in Ty Lee’s steady hands. She hadn’t missed how he’d been trying to put himself between her and the arrow. She shoved him back, the thought of him hurt because of her too much to bear. His confession, her feelings, that warm, wonderful kiss…it clung to her like spider webs, draping over her with a dreamy haze.

She wouldn’t let someone hurt him. She’d die before she let that happen.

Besides, this was between her and Ty Lee.

“You disgust me. I can’t believe you would try to kill your own brother!” Ty Lee said through clenched teeth. There were tears in her big brown eyes. “I mean, I always knew you were capable of it! I knew you weren’t a good person, but I never thought you’d go through with it! I’m such an idiot to believe that you could change!”

“Ty Lee… Put down the crossbow…” Sokka said soothingly.

“Yeah, put it down before you hurt yourself,” Azula said, stepping forward and wrapping her hands around the bars. “That thing isn’t really your style anyway. What’s the matter? Afraid you can’t take me hand-to-hand? Afraid I’ll light that pretty dress on fire?”

“I’m not afraid of you.  I could chi-block you within seconds…but I don’t want to have to touch you. You’re the kind of filth that doesn’t wash away, Azula.”

“I think we all need to calm down,” Sokka interjected, but she and Ty Lee ignored him.

“Take a shot then.”

“I ought to put you down like the rabid animal you are,” Ty Lee snarled.

“Then do it. We both know you don’t have the guts. You never did. DO IT! I DARE YOU!”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? To watch me lose control. To become _you,_ a murdering bitch with no conscience _._ I’m better than that. I’m better than _you_.”

Pain flitted through her Azula’s heart, like a knife twisted deep inside. Is that what Ty Lee thought of her? What they all thought of her? She glanced at Sokka.

No, not everyone.

She pushed a sharp smile onto her face and said crisply, coldly, “You say that, but which of us is pointing a weapon and threatening to kill the other, hmm?”

Ty Lee’s face went still and her eyes flicked the crossbow and then back up at Azula. She swallowed and the anger etched across every inch of her beautiful face slowly trickled away, replaced by a sadness that seemed to stab at Azula even worse than the anger had. She unexpectedly dropped the crossbow at her side and shook her head.

“I came here to kill you. I did. I’m so _angry_ … But I can’t do it. I want you to suffer, you _deserve_ to suffer for betraying Zuko. He’ll put you on trial for treason. He’ll banish you and throw you into prison. He’ll strip you of your titles. He’ll lock you away just like he did your father. You’ll become a ghost, Azula. A sad, crazy ghost locked in a little cell with no one to talk to but the voices in your head. And even _that_ is better than what you deserve.”

Azula stared at her, at her old friend, unable to tell her the truth, to say anything in her defense. Terror had gripped her. Thoughts of being trapped in a cell for the rest of her life, trapped like her father, abandoned to her ghosts… Without Sokka…

Her throat constricted and she tightened her hold on the bars, feeling the room unexpectedly tilting beneath her. Her knees suddenly felt like water and she tasted bitterness on her tongue.

“You both can rot in there, for all I care,” Ty Lee sneered.

“That won’t make the Smoke Demons happy,” Sokka said beside her, putting his hand on her shoulder.  She wondered if he’d noticed her rising panic. It was like a clawing beast inside of her, gripping her insides, struggling to break free.

 “The Smoke Demons?” Ty Lee asked, her nose scrunching. “What are you talking about?”

“Aren’t you working for them? You’re a double-agent! ” Sokka exclaimed.

“No, I’m not! _You_ are!” Ty Lee insisted. “How you could you think I’d turn on Zuko? I love your brother!”

“Really?” Azula drawled, smirking, some of her panic fading. “I didn’t think you were into men anymore.”

Ty Lee’s face went cold and she glared at Azula as Sokka made a disapproving noise beside her.

“Oh, it’s all a joke to you, isn’t it, Azula? It always was. You knew how I felt, how confused I was, and you strung me along. You used me. You mocked me. And I just kept making excuses for you, like an idiot…just _hoping_ … But I see you for who you really are now. Not who I wanted you to be. You’re a traitor. A _psychopath_. I don’t need your approval. I don’t need your mockery. I have friends I can count on, who support me and love me. Your brother is one of them. I’d _never_ do anything to hurt him.”

Sokka’s hand tightened on her shoulder and he stepped toward the bars. “We wouldn’t either, Ty Lee.”

For the first time, Ty Lee really turned her attention on him.

“What do you mean…?” Her voice trailed off as she squinted her eyes at him. Her head tilted to the side and she blinked a couple of times. Her mouth opened in confusion. “Sokka?! Is that you?”

Sokka let out a nervous laugh. “Uh…”

“What the fuck?” Ty Lee exclaimed, backing up half a step.

“We can explain,” Sokka started.

“I’d love to hear it,” a voice drawled coldly from the stairs, just as the sound of a trigger being pulled filled the air. Ty Lee started and then her body arched forward, a hollow _thwocking_ sound seeming to carry her into the bars in front of Azula, who jumped back.

At the same moment, a fine red mist of hot blood exploded from Ty Lee’s chest, along with the barbed tip of a metal arrow. Azula felt the blood on her face as her eyes widened in shock. Ty Lee gasped, blood dribbling out of her mouth and down her chin as she and Azula stared at each other for what felt like hours, but was only a few horrifying seconds.

“’Zula…?” Ty Lee choked, blood bubbling at the corners of her lips. Fear and confusion played across Ty Lee’s wide eyes as they stared at one another.

“Ty Lee… TY LEE!” Azula screamed, panic seizing her again. She reached through the bars, grasping at Ty Lee as her body sank down the bars and she slumped on the dirty floor. Azula hit her knees, reaching for the girl’s blood-covered face. “TY LEE! DAMMIT, TY LEE!”

There was blood all over her hands. Blood on the floor. Blood pumping out of Ty Lee’s chest.

She didn’t understand.

Nothing made sense. The world was tilting, gushing by her in hot red waves. She could hear Sokka’s voice. Screaming at her to get up. To fight.

_Too late. We’re too late._

She could hear the stranger knocking another arrow into the slot. Could hear her own labored breathing as she shook Ty Lee’s shoulder.

_Wake up. Wake up. WAKE UP!_

But Ty Lee didn’t move.

As Sokka screamed at her, trying to pull her back from the bars, the void, that numb, blissful fugue that had crept over her so many times the past few years, came back to claim her. She let it flow over her like water, stealing the horror, the shock, and the panic and replacing it with… _nothing._

For once in her life, she was grateful to be lost in the black, grateful not to feel anything.

Grateful to be gone.

* * *

“DAMMIT, AZULA, MOVE!” Sokka snarled, yanking her unresponsive body back from the bars as another crossbow bolt hit the bars and pinged off of it not inches from where Azula had been pressing her face. The assassin cursed and knocked another into the slot.

Azula was limp in his hands, shocked, her arms and hands slippery with hot blood. Sokka pulled her back against the wall and she slumped there, staring unblinkingly at Ty Lee’s fallen body. Her mouth was slightly open and a tremble could be seen in her limbs.

“Fuck…” he growled. He knew that look. She wasn’t going to be any help, not until he could snap her out of it, and he definitely didn’t have that kind of time.

Another bolt hit the wall not an inch from his face, gouging out a large chunk of volcanic rock and sending little bits and pieces into his eyes. He ducked and wheeled on the door of their cell, his hand fishing into his shirt, searching for the key Zuko had given him.

He cursed the guards for having taken his dagger. He had nothing to fight with now. The plan had been for Azula to protect them both with her Firebending…but that was clearly not going to work any longer.

“This would go a lot faster if you’d just hold still,” a wheedling voice said from the stairwell.

“Who are you?” Sokka growled as he crouched protectively in front of Azula. He grabbed the leather thong holding the key around his neck, undoing the knot with a hard yank. “Show yourself!”

“You want to know who I am? How about I ask you who you are, Tazeo? Because I distinctly heard that dead bitch call you ‘Sokka’. Explain that to me.”

“She was mistaken,” Sokka said through his teeth, inching forward, toward the door of the cell. “I’m Tazeo.”

“She didn’t seem to think so. Too bad I killed her. I coulda asked her some questions. Very interesting questions. And then pinned your murder on her. Maybe I still will? Who knows? I haven’t thought that far ahead. My orders were non-specific.”

“And why are you going to murder me?”

“Because you _failed_. Tazeo. _Sokka._ Whatever your name is. You failed the Smoke Demons. You were set a task, a very important task. You were supposed to kill Zuko. You and that crazy bitch failed. And now I have to compromise my position, my _identity_ and fix your mistakes. I have to get my hands dirty! ME! The _indignity_ of the whole thing!”

As the words echoed off the high dungeon walls, a bearded man stepped out of the shadows, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a sneer. He had narrowed eyes and a belly just going to seed, but his arms still looked powerful. He was still dressed for the ball and the embroidered gold insignia designating him as a member of Zuko’s Council glittered on his right shoulder.

It took Sokka a few seconds too long to recognize Councilor Osamu’s face and even longer to conjure up his name. He’d never had much contact with the Council, after all.

But, it wasn’t hard to forget the face of the man who had danced with Azula just a few hours prior. He’d watched them dancing from the crowd, watched the man put his soggy hands all over Azula, and watched Azula’s reaction to him. He’d made her uncomfortable and nearly triggered a panic attack.

Sokka had threatened him. Had hated him for touching her, for scaring her. He glanced at Ty Lee and felt rage and sorrow spike through him. His hands folding around the key in his grip, letting the cold, murderous personae he’d created in Tazeo slip over him like a second skin. He’d had months to try him on, to learn who he was, to fill him out. Becoming him was easier than breathing.

Tazeo was a murderer. Tazeo was ruthless. Tazeo was dangerous. Tazeo would make this bastard pay…but it was _Sokka_ who would enjoy the things he did this time, instead of feeling sick and guilty, and he knew it.

“Osamu.”

“That’s right. I believe we met this evening. You threatened me. Shoe’s on the other foot now, isn’t it?” the man said, inching forward.

“You’re one of Zuko’s loyal advisors. He put you on the Council himself. Why would you betray him?”

“A _true_ Smoke Demon wouldn’t have to ask. Just who are you?” Osamu sneered and then lifted the crossbow. He took aim just as Sokka lunged for the cell door. He knew he’d never get the key in the lock in time, but he knew that he had to try.

His eyes caught on Ty Lee’s dropped crossbow, and the metal fan at her hip. If he could get to them…

Desperation sent adrenaline jolting through him as he fit the key into the lock. He heard it click, just as Osamu fired.

Sokka screamed in pain, his knee buckling around the arrow now lodged in his upper thigh. Blood drenched his pants leg as he gripped the arrow, attempting to wrench it out. He looked up at Osamu and saw the bloodthirsty expression on the Councilor’s face.

“You should have killed Zuko. This could have gone a lot differently for you,” Osamu said as he knocked another bolt into the firing mechanism. “You could have been rewarded. But just like Han-Jin, you have to be put down. We do not accept failure in the Smoke Demons. She won’t allow it.”

“AZULA!” Sokka grunted, glancing at her, but she was rocking back and forth in place, staring at Ty Lee and the blood on her hands. “SNAP OUT OF IT!”

Azula’s eyes flicked to his just as Osamu lifted the crossbow and took aim on her. She saw the arrow in his leg, the blood pumping out of him onto the floor. Her shocky eyes narrowed and she flicked her gaze to Osamu.

“No.”

Her voice pierced the air just as Osamu fired. Azula rolled out of the way, lashing out her arm and tossing a bright bloom of blue flame through the air. The arrow bounced off the wall as Osamu cursed and dived out of the way of the fire roaring toward him.

The fireball exploded with a bright pop against the stairs.

Sokka didn’t gave Osamu time to reload. He kicked the door open with his good leg and scrambled across the bloody floor toward Ty Lee’s lost crossbow.

Sokka’s fingers grabbed it, but it was knocked away Osamu charged at him, bashing him in the face with his knee. Sokka felt his nose break and pain blinded him, blood gushing down his lips and chin.

Osamu’s fist came down into his face a half a second later, and he reeled back against the bars with a grunt of pain.

“How they ever trusted you two incompetents, I’ll never know,” Osamu snorted, shaking his fist as Sokka tried to clear his blurry vision.

“Get away from him.”

It was Azula, her voice quiet and cold as it laced through the air like an arctic wind.

“They should have put you down years ago,” Osamu sneered, lifting the crossbow at her. “Crazy bitch.”

“I said get away from him.”

Azula’s eerie blue fire filled the warm air, lending demonic shadows to Osamu’s bearded face. His lips pulled back from his teeth in a grimacing smile. A second later, he whipped the crossbow across Sokka’s face, knocking his head back into the bars.

Sokka slumped in the pool of Ty Lee’s blood, coating his face with the wet, sticky mess. He groaned and reached for the fan at her hip, but Osamu put one booted foot against his chest, pushed him back into the bars.

“I’m going to kill you for hurting him. For killing Ty Lee. For trying to kill my brother,” Azula said in a detached voice. Sokka’s head was spinning, the pain in his leg superseding all of the other cuts and bruises. “And because I just don’t fucking like you.”

Osamu laughed and put the crossbow against Sokka’s temple. The tip of the arrow dug into the bone and he winced away.

“Do it and I’ll kill him.”

He could see Azula out the corner of his eye. She was standing against the wall of the cell, flames dancing above her bloodied hands.

“Kill him and they’ll be scraping charred bits of your flesh off this floor for decades.”

“You don’t have the guts.”

“If she doesn’t, _I_ do,” Zuko said from the stairs. He was dressed in dark clothing, his hair pulled up into a high ponytail. Suki was beside him, holding a short sword. Her gaze flicked from Sokka to Ty Lee on the ground beside him. Her eyes widened.

“Your Highness!” Osamu said, wheeling on him. “I stopped the prisoners from escaping!”

“And what were you doing down here, Osamu?”

“I wanted to question the princess. I got here just as one of your bodyguards was releasing them!”

Zuko’s gaze flicked to Ty Lee and something in his face went hard and merciless. It reminded Sokka of the boy he’d first met all those years ago, relentless, driven, angry. Zuko looked just like Azula in those moments.

“Put the weapon down, Osamu.”

“Sire…” Osamu stammered, shifting in place.

“Put it down,” Zuko barked, flames bursting to life in his hands too. His were orange where Azula’s were blue. The light filled the narrow hole of a dungeon, blinding Sokka, whose head was floating now. His whole leg felt like it was on fire. He tensed against the dig of the arrow at his temple. “As your Fire Lord, I command you.”

Osamu went very still and his chin lifted, the careful air of obsequious groveling he’d put on the moment Zuko had appeared slipping away from him in an instant.

“ _My_ Fire Lord? _You?_ ” Osamu sneered. “You’re not worthy of the throne, Zuko. You or your whore of a sister!”

Zuko pulled himself up, his face blank and cold, as if the sight of one of his trusted Councilors turning on him wasn’t a shock to the system. “How long have you been working for the Smoke Demons?”

“Since they came to me. I _jumped_ at the chance to betray you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re unworthy to sit the throne when there are others who would do right by the Fire Nation. Who would rule us with a strong hand. Who would provide sons and heirs to the throne. Madness runs in your family. Azulon was power-mad, sadistic! Ozai was even worse. Your slut of a sister is insane. It’s only a matter of time before _your_ psyche is as scarred as your face, Zuko. I don’t want a mad king.”

Zuko took the insult with barely a blink. “Who is the leader of the Smoke Demons?”

“You think I would betray them? You think I would stoop so low? I’m loyal only to them!”

“I always knew you were a toady, Guo’s mouthpiece. I kept you on the Council because you had good contacts in the trader’s guilds. I didn’t think you were capable of an original thought or deed… You just say whatever Guo wants you to say. Is that the leader of the Smoke Demons? Is it Guo?”

Osamu grinned. “I’ll never tell.”

“Yes, you will,” Azula said.

She had come up behind Osamu, who had let himself get too close to the bars. Like a snake striking, she shot her arms out through the bars and grabbed hold of the back of Osamu’s robe. He stumbled back, slamming his head against the bars.

Sokka grabbed the crossbow at the same moment, whipping it out of his hands and bringing the butt against the Councilor’s knee. The man cried out in pain.

“You killed her, you fucking piece of shit,” Azula growled in his ear. “You hurt Sokka. You’re going to pay.”

“Let him go, Azula,” Zuko said, striding forward as Azula lifted one hand. Blue fire danced along her fingertips, then lightning sparked from her thumb. “He has information that we need. We have him surrounded. He won’t get away.”

“He _killed_ her,” Azula said in a shocky voice. Sokka looked up at her, his swimming gaze focusing on her.

“Zuko’s right, Azula. We need him to talk,” he said wearily.

“I’ll never betray the Smoke Demons. They’ll come for me. You’ll see.”

“And when they do they’ll kill you. Isn’t that how this works? You failed, Osamu. They’ll kill you to keep from talking.”

“ _I’ll_ kill him first,” Azula said in his ear, bringing her hand down toward his face. Osamu squirmed, trying to get away from the heat of the flames.

“Azula…”

“You’ll talk, you piece of shit. But first…”

“No! AZULA, DON’T!” Sokka and Zuko shouted together, but it was too late.

Flames engulfed one half of Osamu’s face. The man screamed in pain squirmed in her grasp, trying to pull his face away from the white-hot fire. The smell and sound of sizzling flesh roiled through the air, making Sokka sick to his stomach.

“STOP IT!” Suki cried, starting forward, but Zuko stopped her.

“Let him go, Azula,” Zuko said sharply, his voice carrying across the dungeon. Azula let go of Osamu’s collar, the flames dying in her palm.

Osamu stumbled forward, his mouth open, the flesh on his face smoldering, burned red and crispy black. He glared at Zuko and reached for him, hatred in his gaze. He never made it two steps; his eyes rolled up in his head and he hit the floor in a heap in front of Sokka.

“Well,” Sokka said tiredly into the sudden silence, “that went better than expected.”

* * *

The smell of burnt skin filled the air with a nauseating stench that cut through Suki’s shocked and horrified senses like a knife.  She pushed past Zuko and skidded on her knees across the stones toward Sokka and Ty Lee’s fallen forms.

“Are you okay?”

“No,” Sokka said shortly, grimacing, his face covered in blood. “Bastard shot me in the leg and broke my nose.”

“Oh, spirits…” she mumbled, reaching for the arrow lodged in Sokka’s thigh. It was bleeding sluggishly and when she touched it, he hitched in a breath and knocked her hand away. “Sorry!”

“What took you guys so long?” Sokka asked through his teeth.

“We had to wait for the stables to clear, so we wouldn’t be seen. We went as fast as we could. I’m so sorry…”

“S’okay…it’s just a scratch,” Sokka said and blinked sleepily.

Zuko crouched down beside them and surveyed the damage. “Sokka, you’ve lost a lot of blood. We need to get you to a healer.”

“But Osamu said there were others. Others in the palace…” Sokka mumbled, leaning his head back against the bars. “We need to…”

“Osamu’s alive and injured. We can get more information out of him later. Right now you both need medical attention. And Ty Lee…” Suki turned her gaze on the girl lying in a puddle of blood beside Sokka. Her skin was pale white, her mouth open slightly, eyes closed.

“Is she…?” Zuko asked her in a pained voice. Suki glanced up at him and took an unsteady breath. From the moment they’d rushed down the stairs, Suki had been terrified of the way Ty Lee had been lying there, motionless, surrounded by blood. As she leaned over her, she could see the arrow protruding from just below her breasts.

_Please, no…  Please…_

With shaking hands, Suki, touched Ty Lee’s neck, pressing her fingertips against the pulse point. She closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting, hoping. Tears started in her eyes, but she pushed them back, unwilling to give in yet, to give up hope…

After a few seconds, Ty Lee’s pulse jumped beneath her fingertips, small and birdlike, barely there and weak. She let out a breath and the tears she’d been holding back burst out of her in a hard rush. She turned back to Zuko.

“She’s alive! Just barely, but she’s still holding on! We need to get her to the healers _now!_ ” she said thickly, licking her lips. Zuko glanced at Osamu and Sokka.

“Ty Lee needs attention more than I do. Take her to the healers.  I can hold out for a few minutes,” Sokka said, pulling himself up against the bars. Suki stared at him.

He looked the worse for wear, with his nose bent at an angle, blood drenching his lower face and chest, and the arrow in his thigh. He looked exhausted, and not just from the fight.

Suki glanced up at Azula, who was staring at Ty Lee’s body in shock.

“Azula?”

“She’s alive?”

“Yes,” Suki said, standing and pulling the pack off of her back. “Here’s some rope. I need you to tie Osamu up in case he wakes up.”

“She’s not dead…” Azula said, walking out of the cell. She stopped though, staring at Ty Lee. “She’s not dead…”

Suki glanced down at Sokka, who had closed his eyes against the pain. This was getting them nowhere. It was time for action. With a hard exhale, she grasped Azula’s shoulder and snapped her fingers in her face.

“Dammit, Azula. You need to focus! Tie up Osamu! NOW! We need to get Ty Lee to the healers or she won’t be alive much longer. Do you hear me?”

Azula blinked, coming out of her half-trance. She glared at Suki and then nodded, taking the rope with a rough yank.

Zuko bent over Ty Lee, smoothing her hair back from her face with a gentle hand.

“It’s okay, sweetheart, we’re going to take care of you,” he mumbled to her, kissing her temple. Then he scooped her up in his arms. Her head flopped against Zuko’s shoulder, but she didn’t wake.

Azula was tying up Osamu in the corner, pulling the knots tight around his wrists and ankles. His burned face looked like ground meat. It made Suki sick to see it. That done, she went over and took up another crossbow that was lying at the foot of the stairs.

Suki wondered if Osamu had brought two with him, but couldn’t fathom why. The crossbow Sokka had taken from him still had a few bolts left. She had a feeling she’d find out the answer to that later.

“Azula, protect Sokka and yourself. And Osamu, I suppose. I’ll send Suki back with a healer. I don’t think you’ll be going up the stairs any time soon, Sokka.”

“Great. I can live down here. This place needs a man’s touch anyway,” Sokka said, grabbing the crossbow and putting across his lap.

“I’ll be right back,” Suki promised as Azula passed her. She shot her arm, grasping Azula’s biceps. “Watch his fucking back. Don’t you dare check out again, you understand me?”

Azula glared at her and then wrenched her arm free. “Get Ty Lee to the healer.”

Zuko was already starting toward the stairs, carefully, but quickly, climbing them. Suki followed after, leaving Sokka and Azula back in the basement.

Things had definitely not gone as planned. Ty Lee was on death’s door— _what had she been doing down there_?—Sokka was injured and Osamu was unconscious.

At least they were once step closer to unraveling the mystery of who was behind the Smoke Demons.

Somehow, that didn’t make Suki feel any better.


	14. Chapter 14

Zuko leaned his head back against the wall of the palace’s healing ward, closing his eyes against the dull throbbing in his temples. He counted to ten, trying to calm the anger raging inside of him, but it wouldn’t be quelled.

He wasn’t just angry. He was pissed off, _murderous_ even.

He glanced at the closed door beside him, the smell of herbs, blood and charred flesh in his nose. There was blood on the floor, which no one had bothered to clean up yet.

_She lost so much blood…_

He stopped his thoughts dead in their tracks, refusing to dwell on Ty Lee’s lifeless body, or the way her head had rolled limply to the side when he’d passed her off to one of Nam-Kyu’s underlings. The healers had taken charge with no questions asked and despite the late hour, Nam-Kyu had rushed to the ward within minutes of his and Suki’s arrival, moving faster than a woman her age ought to have. She had been all business, not even blinking at the sight of the blood or the arrow protruding out of Ty Lee’s chest, or asking them why the Fire Lord and his bodyguards had been under attack.

She’d ordered him and Suki out of the room while she worked on Ty Lee. He’d felt numb, sticky with warm blood, sure that there was nothing Nam-Kyu could do for her.

But the door hadn’t opened again. He had to think of that as a good sign. He _had_ _to._

A sharp cry of pain broke through the air, making him, Suki and Azula jump. He glanced at one of the other doors, his mouth hardening to a thin line, hatred boiling within him.

He wished Osamu had stayed unconscious; he knew from personal experience how much facial burns hurt. The man would be marked for the rest of his life, however short that would be.

Zuko lifted his hand, running his fingertips over his scar, replaying the sight of Azula burning his Councilor’s face. He might have stopped it. He probably could have.

But he hadn’t. Not in time.

_He deserved it. He nearly killed Ty Lee. He’s a Smoke Demon. He wants me dead. He hurt Sokka…_

But the words held no comfort for him. He crossed his arms over his chest and tried to shut out Osamu’s cries.

“You should have let him suffer,” Azula said acidly from her position against the wall. She hadn’t moved since the healers they’d sent to retrieve Sokka had carried him into one of the rooms and closed the door. She was staring at her bloody hands, her eyes slightly glazed over.

Worry struck him. She looked unhinged…in shock. She’d looked like that in the dungeon too, just before Suki had yelled at her in frustration.

“He _is_ suffering,” Suki said softly, but firmly. She was standing with her back to the ward, blocking the doorway. The line of her shoulders was stiff, a fan and a short sword in her hands. She hadn’t moved since they’d brought Osamu up out of the dungeon. And she had refused to meet his gaze so far. “No thanks to you.”

“He’ll live. More’s the pity,” Azula spat at Suki’s back. “I should have killed him for this.”

“And then where would we be? We need him to talk, Azula. There are other Smoke Demons in the palace. He could tell us who they are,” he said with more patience than he felt. He wanted to _do_ something instead of wait for news. Ty Lee could be dying. How badly had the arrow damaged Sokka’s leg? What did Osamu know?

Zuko rubbed his forehead, wishing his headache would go away. Wishing he had answers.

“You heard him. He’ll never talk.”

“Not now that you melted his face,” Suki snapped, whirling on Azula. “Now he’ll be so doped up that anything we get out of him will be gibberish and lies!”

“He was going to kill Sokka!” Azula shouted, standing, one hand braced on the wall. “And where were the two of you, huh? Probably groping each other!”

“Don’t you dare turn this around on us! The halls were full of guardsmen. We came as fast as we could. What the hell happened to _you_ down there, Azula?” Suki said, her teeth gritted. She was breathing hard and Zuko could tell that she’d been working up this rant the whole time they’d been waiting. “Sokka didn’t have any weapons! _You_ were supposed to protect him if the agent got there before we did! Instead you went all comatose! He could have been killed because of you!”

“That’s not…” Azula started, but choked off her words with a hard swallow, backing up against the wall. “I…”

“And what the hell was Ty Lee even _doing_ there?” Suki demanded. “ANSWER ME, DAMMIT!”

“Answer her, Azula,” Zuko said quietly as Azula stared at Suki like she’d like to burn her face off too.

“She just showed up with a crossbow. She was angry with me. She really thought I’d come to assassinate you, that I really was a Smoke Demon. We had some personal issues to work out, needless to say.”

Zuko blinked in shock and pushed away from the wall. “Ty Lee was going to shoot you?”

Azula’s eyebrow quirked, but not from amusement. There was hurt in her eyes, real hurt. Zuko was shocked to see it. “No. I think she told herself that she was, but I knew that she wouldn’t. She was just angry. She’s…very fond of you, Zuko. At the very least, she seems to think that I don’t deserve you as a brother.”

“Oh,” he said, unsure what to think of that.

“Sokka and I thought she was the Smoke Demon agent at first, but it became clear that that was not the case. Osamu showed up and shot her before we even knew that he was there. No doubt if Ty Lee had known he was lurking on the stairs, she would have taken him down easily.”

“The second crossbow was hers?” Suki asked.

“Yes.”

Zuko let out a breath and rolled his shoulders, trying to work out some of the tension he was holding there. At least he had some answers now and knew why Ty Lee had gotten involved. It didn’t make what had happened easier, but at least he knew that Ty Lee wasn’t connected to the Smoke Demons. He realized that the thought hadn’t actually occurred to him anyway. Next to Suki, he trusted Ty Lee implicitly.

And she’d gotten hurt trying to protect him.

 _Dammit,_ he thought, sinking back against the wall with a sigh. _Will this night ever end?_

“Well that still doesn’t answer the question of why you failed to protect Sokka,” Suki said angrily.

“Look, bitch, I know you’re pissed off that he broke up with you, but—“ Azula started, causing Suki‘s face to flush red.

“If you even think for one second that this is about _that_ —“ Suki started.

“What the hell else am I supposed to think?” Azula shouted.

“If you’re _that_ insecure—“

Zuko darted forward, getting between the two women before they could come to blows. Blue flames had flared up above Azula’s fingers and Suki had lifted her fan and sword, a look on her face that he’d never seen before.

“STOP IT! NOW!” he commanded, his voice booming across the ward. He put out his hands, pushing both women back a step. Azula glared at him and then dampened the flames with a jerk of her hand. She turned her back on them and sank back down against the wall. She refused to look up.

“We’re not through here!” Suki said loudly, trying to push past him. Zuko caught her by the shoulders.

“Enough,” he said, and their gazes met for the first time since they’d left Sokka to the healers. “We all made mistakes here. It was a flawed plan from the start and it was risky. We all knew that. Sokka most of all, since it was his plan. He _will_ be fine…I think. And we have Osamu. We have to focus on that. We’re one step closer to figuring this out and turning on each other isn’t going to help.”

Suki stared at him and then glanced at Azula. She took a deep breath and turned her gaze back on him. She nodded at him, lowering her weapons. “Sorry.”

“I know. I’m worried about them too.”

“I’m worried about you too.”

“Me? I’m fine. There’s only an unknown number of people in my own home who want me dead. I’ve dealt with worse. Remember the time I had to fight an Agni Kai with my sister?”

Azula made a disgusted noise, glaring at them.

Suki smiled a little. “You beat her ass.”

“Well, _Katara_ beat her ass, but I like to think I helped.”

“She did _not!_ ” Azula snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Shut up,” Suki and Zuko said together and then smiled at each other. Suki reached out and touched his hand. He felt exhaustion and need crowd out the anger for a moment. He could face anything, so long as Suki was with him, and he knew it. “We’ll get through this.”

“I know we will,” she said softly, just as the door beside Azula opened, admitting the healer who had taken over Sokka’s care when they’d brought him up from the dungeon. He was wiping his hands on a towel, a grim expression on his bearded face.

Azula jerked to her feet. “How is he?”

The healer turned a disgusted look on her and raised an eyebrow. “Sire, shouldn’t she be in chains?”

“What?” Zuko started, but then stopped himself.

Of course. The charade. There hadn’t been time to explain anything when they’d arrived. The healers were probably still assuming that Sokka was Tazeo and that he and Azula had tried to assassinate him. “I mean, no. My sister isn’t a threat any longer. How is the patient?”

The healer’s look of surprise was fleeting as he locked it down and launched in a professional assessment of Sokka’s state. “Luckily for him, the arrow in his thigh missed the femoral artery. He might have bled out in the dungeons otherwise. I’ve removed it, stopped the bleeding and stitched it up. I also reset his nose. I don’t think there will be any lasting damage, though he’ll be off his feet for a few weeks. He’ll be weak from blood loss for a few days.”

“But he’s fine?” Azula asked tightly, her hands fisted at her sides.

The healer pulled a look of disapproval, glanced at Zuko and then back at her. “He’ll live.”

“Thank you,” Zuko started, but Azula shoved past him and entered the room. The healer moved to stop her, but Zuko held up his hand. Together he and Suki followed Azula’s lead into the small room.

The white room, all sterility, was small, but neat and orderly. A pile of blood-soaked bandages sat in a metal bowl, along with a tray of bloody instruments. The smell of herbs filled the air, pungent and soporific.

Sokka was lying back on the flat bed, a blanket over him. He was pale beneath the tattoos on his bare arms. A stiff bandage stood out starkly against the spectacular bruise surrounding his puffy nose. His eyes looked like two purple berries, swollen and raw.

“Sokka…”

Sokka’s swollen eyes opened as much as they could, rolling tiredly across Zuko and Suki. He pulled a half-hearted smile at them. Then his gaze struck Azula, who had stopped at the foot of the bed.

“’Zula…” he reached out a hand and then she was there, shaking. She buried her face in his hand, her shoulders shaking. “’Zula, I’m okay…”

“I got lost again.”

“Shhh…no…” Sokka said softly, rolling to the side a little and trying to lift Azula’s face to his. She looked up at him and Zuko was shocked to see tears in his sister’s eyes. “You cryin’?”

“No! Why would I cry?” Azula denied thickly. “And why did you let him shoot you?”

“Cuz I’m an idiot,” Sokka said with a sigh. “Had to protect you.”

“I should have protected _you!_ I went away again! I promise I won’t do that again! I _won’t_.”

“Not your fault…” Sokka said, pushing her hair back behind her ears. He lifted her chin and kissed her gently. Zuko turned away, a lump in his throat that he couldn’t explain. He knew he’d just witnessed something very private, something he wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to see if he were in Sokka’s place. The sight of his sister so…undone…was disorienting.

As he looked away, he saw that there was an odd expression on Suki’s face, a pained one, as she stared at Azula and Sokka.

_Less than a week ago and it would have been her crying over Sokka’s injured body, kissing him…_

The thought entered his mind like a death blow punch to the heart, leaving him stranded in a sea of pain. What must be going through her mind, watching them together? Sokka’s eyes had slid right past her. How did that feel? Was she jealous? Did she wish that she’d never broken up with him?

Was she suddenly regretting _everything?_

Pain twisted through his heart like a knife as Sokka mumbled something to Azula they couldn’t hear, and then raised his voice.

“It was a stupid plan from the start, you know. Arrows hurt, by the way.”

“Are you okay?” Suki asked him in a tight voice. Sokka glanced at her and then looked away quickly.

“I think so,” he mumbled and tried to sit up, but Zuko crossed the room, pushing him back down onto the bed.

“No, don’t get up,” Zuko said heavily, seeing the way Sokka winced. He let his gaze slide over his injured friend, and then to his sister, who refused to look anywhere but at Sokka. He sighed. “You two need to leave.”

Sokka blinked up at him in confusion as Azula’s head shot up. “Excuse me? Leave?”

“The palace. Maybe even the Fire Nation.”

“Just because I’m injured—“

He pulled himself up and clenched his teeth, his mind whirring. “It’s not that, Sokka…well, it _is_ , actually. The plan sort of worked, we have Osamu, but you said he indicated there are more agents in the palace…”

“Yeah. He mentioned a woman. And someone named Han-Jin. I think he meant that assassin who tried to kill you on the balcony,” Sokka said. “But he also said he couldn’t believe that _he_ had been sent to do the dirty work. Not sure what that means.”

“I don’t know either,” Zuko said, chewing on his bottom lip. “What I _do_ know is that I have to limit the number of targets they can hit. You’re both sitting turtle-ducks in this ward. And Azula, half of the Fire Nation thinks you’re a traitor by now. _Ty Lee_ already tried to kill you. Who is else is next? It’s not safe for you here.”

“We can handle ourselves,” Azula said coldly, getting to her feet. The suspicious traces of tears were gone from her eyes, though they were red and slightly puffy.

“I know you can. You’ve both sacrificed so much to protect me and to undo what the Smoke Demons have done, but now it’s my turn to protect you. Osamu failed to kill you. That means someone else might come, to kill him, you, me. I can’t protect all of us. So I need to send you someplace safe.”

“Zuko, are you sure about this?” Suki asked him from the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest. She had a skeptical look on her face.

“This is for the best,” he said tiredly and ducked out of the door. The healer was entering something on a chart at the far end of the ward. He ordered the healer to send word to the nearest guardsman or servant he could find. The healer nodded and hastened out of the ward to follow his instructions. When he turned back, he saw that Azula and Sokka were speaking softly to each other.

“We should give them some privacy,” Suki said shortly, tearing her gaze away from them, though she avoided his. She left the room in a decisive march, her face a blank mask. He left the room, closing the door against his sister’s private conversation. “Where are you sending them?”

“It’s better if I don’t know. They can take my airship and they can figure it out from there,” Zuko said, stiffly, taking a deep breath and holding it. He just needed everything to stop. For one damned moment. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to soothe the throbbing in his temple.

Suki’s hand touched his and he opened his eyes, turning his gaze on her as he did so.

“I wasn’t jealous,” she said softly, surprising him.

“What?”

“In the room. I wasn’t jealous of Azula, with Sokka. I saw you watching me. It just felt strange, is all. Like I should have been jealous. Up until a couple of days ago he was my boyfriend…seeing him kissing her is weird,” she said in a rush, her cheeks turning pink. “But I’m not jealous. Mostly I just feel sad. I don’t know why.”

Zuko’s heart lurched as she squeezed his hand. “Suki…”

“I just didn’t want you to think that I… I don’t regret breaking up with him,” she said, glancing toward the closed door to Sokka’s sickroom. “It’s just strange not being there with him.”

“You don’t have to explain, Suki. Things are complicated. I get it. Believe me,” he said, lifting a hand to his jaw, where Sokka’s reprimand stood out starkly on his pale skin. Suki lifted a hand and touched the bruise, a sad little smile on her face. He caught her fingers and kissed them softly.

“I just want…” she trailed off, biting down on her lower lip. “I want things to be less crazy. I want things to slow down…”

“Me too,” he said wearily. “I want…”

The main door to the ward opened and he cut himself off, dropping Suki’s hand as an unwelcome collection of guests in the form of his Seneschal and several of his soldiers, with the healer he’d sent off trailing after them.

“Sire!” Jiang said upon spotting him. “I was just now informed of what happened in the dungeons! Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Zuko said stiffly as Suki not-so-subtly stepped in between her and Jiang, causing Jiang to pull up short. Suki lifted her chin in a clear challenge. She lifted the sword as Jiang looked down at her with first surprise, then disdain, then obvious caution.

“Is there a problem, sire?” Jiang asked, glancing down at Suki, and then up at Zuko.

“My bodyguard is feeling rather protective of me at the moment. She tends to get testy when someone tries to assassinate me. Repeatedly,” he said coldly.

Jiang stiffened a little. “There was another attack?”

“Yes. But not on me,” Zuko said softly. He realized that he didn’t trust Jiang any longer; and clearly neither did Suki. They’d both come to the same conclusion where he was concerned. In fact, since finding out that one of his trusted Councilors had been working against him, he was finding it very hard to trust anyone.

He was getting very tired of that.

“Sire…I don’t understand…” Jiang started, but he cut him off.

“Jiang, send word to the Kyoshi Warriors. Get them down here and tell them to bring my uncle from my room, under guard. Then call my Council to session. I’ll be there within the half-hour. There’s a lot to discuss and there’s no time to waste. Also, send the city guard to arrest Osamu’s family. I want them detained and under guard in their home until further notice. No one goes in or out. Do you understand?”

Jiang started, confusion crossing his brow. “Of course, sire.”

“And send Fen down here immediately. I need him. You’re dismissed, Jiang! And if any harm comes to my uncle, or any of my orders aren’t carried out within the hour, I’m holding _you_ responsible. And I’m _not_ in a very forgiving mood right now,” Zuko said, a bite to his voice. The Seneschal’s eyes widened, but then he bowed deeply.

“Of course, sire.”

“And take your guards with you.”

Jiang made a gesture and the guards swept out of the room with Jiang at their wake. Suki relaxed her stance and turned back to face him.

“I don’t trust him.”

“I don’t either, but at least I know where he is right now,” he mumbled.

“What are you going to do?”

Zuko rubbed his temple, thinking fast. “I’m going to have a few words with my Council, and then I’m going to have the Warriors follow them. I want to know what they’re doing and where and with whom. And I’m going to set up a guard on Osamu. I need him to talk and the only people I trust are the Kyoshi Warriors right now. And I’m sending my Uncle away with Azula and Sokka. I think the Smoke Demons want him on the throne and if they can’t find him maybe they’ll think twice about trying to assassinate me. Somehow I doubt that’ll happen, but at least I’ll know Uncle is out of danger.”

Zuko leaned back against the wall again, tilting his face up to the blank plaster ceiling.

“He’s not going to like that. Neither do Sokka and Azula. They’ve spent months trying to protect you.”

“I know. But I need them safe too. I need to control something around here…and the least I can do is lessen the casualties,” he said shortly as the door banged open and Fen came sliding into the ward. His robe was askew, his hair mussed from sleep.

“Sire! One of the palace guard said you needed me! Spirits! You’re covered in blood!”

“I’m fine,” Zuko said, pushing away from the wall again. “My airship. Have it brought out of the bay and inflated. Then fill it with food and supplies for a two-week journey, including medical supplies.”

“Are you going somewhere?” his secretary asked, confusedly.

“Just do it, Fen,” Zuko snapped. “Have it ready to launch in two hours.”

“Of course, sire. Of course,” Fen bowed low and then tore off out of the room the way he’d come, all of his usual cool efficiency lost in his haste to obey.

No sooner had Fen left than eight Kyoshi Warriors came trooping into the ward, flanking Iroh, who looked worried and exhausted. Zuko knew that he hadn’t slept all night. He’d probably been pacing the length of Zuko’s suite, waiting for news.

_He isn’t going to like this._

“Captain! What’s wrong? We were just starting the shift change when we were summoned,” Tam exclaimed, seeing the blood on both of them. She looked alarmed as the other girls gasped.

“Fire Lord Zuko, how did you get out of your suite? We were guarding it all night!” Qing said, staring at him open-mouthed. “General Iroh wouldn’t tell us anything!”

Zuko held up his hands and they all quieted. “I’ll explain all that later. Right now we have other concerns. I know some of you have been up all night, but I need all of you right now, please. I have a mission for each of you. One of my Councilors turned on me.”

“One of your Councilors?” Aiko said, covering her mouth, her blue eyes huge. “Who?”

“Osamu.”

“Osamu! That sweaty little lickspittle? I wouldn’t think he had it in him,” Rin drawled, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Neither did I, Rin, but clearly that’s not the case…” he glanced at the door Nam-Kyu had taken Ty Lee through and grimaced.

“Ty Lee was injured in the fight. She’s still with the healers. She may not make it,” Suki said, lifting her chin. The Kyoshi Warriors all looked shocked. Mei Lin started crying and Kikki pulled her against her shoulder.

“She’s in the healer’s hands right now and we have to let them take care of her. What I need from each and every one of you is my trust. Can I trust you?” As a one they all nodded at him. “Good. I’m calling my Council to session. Once it’s over, I want my Councilors followed. I don’t trust them right now. Jiang too. And I need two of you to guard Osamu in the ward. No one is allowed to come near him, unless it’s a healer, and even then I want you to watch them like a firehawk.”

“Who’s guarding you?” Aiko asked.

“I am,” Suki said. “Once Osamu wakes up, we’re going to get answers from him.”

“And what do you need from me, Zuko?” Iroh said, finally speaking up. He had a grave expression on his bearded face as Zuko turned his attention on him.

“I need you to take Azula and Sokka out of here,” Zuko said.

“Sokka?” Xiuying interrupted.

“Girls, I’ll explain later,” Suki said, holding up her hands.

“You want us to leave?” Iroh said skeptically. “Zuko, there are assassins trying to kill you!”

“I know, Uncle! That’s why I can’t have you here. I think they want to put you on the throne and I know now that they want Azula dead. I need to give them less targets to strike. The very small collection of people I trust are in this room right now. We’re spread too slim as it is. I need the three of you safe. I need you to do this, Uncle. Please.”

He met his Uncle’s implacable gaze, pleading with him. Finally, Iroh broke, shaking his head. “I will do this, Zuko. But I’m not happy about it.”

“I’m not either. Chao-Ahn, Tam? Take my uncle to his rooms and help him pack. Bring him back down to the courtyard in an hour and a half,” Zuko said. “I’ll be there to see you and the others off, Uncle.”

Iroh nodded as the two Kyoshi Warriors led him out of the room.

“Zuko, the Council meeting?” Suki said, glancing at the window. Dawn was starting to break. He’d been up for twenty-four hours. He had a feeling he’d be up for even longer though. This day was never going to end.

Zuko nodded and then gestured for the rest of his bodyguards to follow him, leaving two of them to guard the ward. He glanced at Ty Lee’s door as he passed and sent a silent prayer to any higher power listening that she would be okay.

He had to hope that she was.

Hope was the only thing he could cling to right now. Everything else was ashes and blood and horrors unknown.


	15. Chapter 15

Zuko stared at the collection of shocked faces around him, looking from one to the other, trying to see a weakness there, a tell, _something_ that would give away what his Councilors were really thinking.

Lady Lian, sitting closest to him, looked horrified at Osamu’s betrayal, her hand at her slender throat.

“He can’t have,” she said in a shocked whisper to the silence. “I would never believe it of Osamu.”

“Yes, hard to believe that man had the wits to hatch any sort of a plot,” Madame Biyu said, affronted. “At least not without one of us knowing it!”

Zuko looked down the table. The two women on his Council appeared genuinely shocked, or at least insulted by the betrayal. Bai was stone-faced, leaning back in his chair, his hands clasped on his account books. Every few moments he would shake his head in disbelief. Duke Ru, naturally, was the loudest of them all. He’d boiled to his feet with a great clamor the moment Zuko had told them about Osamu and he’d refused to return to his seat since.

Ru paced the floor, muttering about traitors and hangings and assassins, every few words or so shouting something unintelligible and shaking his finger to the ceiling like his outrage might call down lightning on them all—which was a very real possibility. Duke Ru had been an accomplished Agni Kai fighter in his youth. Zuko had seen him take down men half his size and with very little effort.

Ignoring his bluster for the moment, Zuko turned to his Seneschal.

He didn’t trust Jiang any longer, that was true, but he couldn’t help but notice the white streaks on his jaw where he was clenching it so hard. From anger? Or his own incompetence? Or perhaps because the plot he and Osamu had hatched together had failed yet again?

He couldn’t tell.

He looked past General Mak’s empty Council seat and gazed at the one man whose reaction he’d wanted most to see: Guo.

The ever calm, cool and collected Councilor was sitting at the end of the table, his wizened hair pulled back from his lined face. There was an air of quiet dignity about him, a regality that Zuko had always envied. Guo was the power behind the Council; Zuko knew that well enough. He’d put him on the Council himself, after all, having recognized that power and the value it held. Guo had been a businessman, wealthy, successful. Not Royal by blood, but elite through sheer determination, connections, and money. Guo made things happen and Zuko had been more than eager to let Guo make things happen in the name of the Fire Nation.

It was Guo who had suggested the guild master Osamu for the Council. It was to Guo that Osamu always looked to for guidance. Every idea out of Osamu’s mouth had always come from Guo’s first.

Zuko met his gaze and the two men stared at each other while Duke Ru raged. Finally, Zuko spoke up.

“Ru, sit down and shut up.”

Ru, half Zuko’s age and twice his size, stopped dead in his tracks and turned on Zuko with a look on his face that suggested that he’d been shot. He looked from Zuko to Guo and then quietly took his seat, his face red and glistening.

“Guo. What do you have to say?” Zuko said softly as Suki came to stand behind the Councilor. The remaining Kyoshi Warriors were flanking his other Councilors; they’d moved to stop the Duke’s rampage, but Zuko had stayed them with a motion of his hand.

Guo placed his hands on the tabletop and folded them carefully in front of him. Then he lifted his nose and peered at Zuko calmly.

“I’m shocked and appalled at his behavior, Lord Zuko,” Guo said. “I’ve known Osamu for years. He has always been…a man of unlimited wealth and influence, but rather limited in cleverness. It strikes me that Osamu would not come up with a plan by himself. He must be working for someone else.”

Zuko’s eyes narrowed as he tilted his head back, looking down his nose at his Council.

“Precisely my thought,” he snapped. He was still angry at the betrayal. And especially angry at Ty Lee’s injury. “And I find that, as a result, I’m perilously short of people I can trust.”

“You do not trust me, Lord Zuko?” said Guo, no inflection in his voice.

“Osamu was _your_ pawn,” Madame Biyu snapped at him, but Zuko held up his hand and she grew silent again.

Guo stood with dignity, causing Suki to pull the sword from her belt. He ignored her.

“I assure you, Lord Zuko, there is no one more loyal than I to the throne of this Nation. I would never betray you. I’m as shocked as you are at Osamu’s turn.”

“Empty words, Guo, and much too late. I’m placing you all under house arrest,” Zuko said softly, causing Lady Lian to gasp again.

“Sire!”

“Just until this matter is settled. You have to understand my position. If one of my Council is in bed with the Smoke Demons, you might all be and I have to do what’s necessary to protect myself, my people and the legacy of this Nation.”

“This is an OUTRAGE!” Duke Ru thundered, smacking the table with one enormous fist.

Guo held up his hand. “Ru, Fire Lord Zuko is absolutely correct. Zuko, we will retire to our estates and do it gladly until these fiends are caught.”

Zuko ground his teeth. He didn’t like how calm Guo was being. He’d wanted something, _anything_ from the man—an explosion like the Duke’s, or a tell, something to let him know what the man was thinking. If Guo was also a traitor, he was doing a good job of not letting anything slip.

“Ladies? Escort my Council to their homes in the Caldera. Including you, Jiang!”

“Sire! There’s a security threat in the palace, I’m needed here!” Jiang proclaimed, his mouth falling open.

“I’m well aware of that, Jiang, but no less than four assassins have slipped past your so-called watchful eye and I find that I’m not feeling at all inclined to think of that as a coincidence. At the very least, even if you prove yourself loyal in the end, I believe that’s enough for you to lose your position.”

“Sire! I…”

But Zuko ignored him, turning to the Kyoshi Warriors. “Notify the city watch and then return to the palace once they’re in place.”

“AN OUTRAGE!” Duke Ru shouted belligerently as the Kyoshi Warriors herded them out the door. Guo glanced back as he left, but he didn’t look at Zuko—he stared right at Suki, who stared right back at him.

The door closed, leaving Zuko and Suki alone in the Council chamber.

“Well. That could have gone worse,” Suki said.

“I honestly wish that it had,” Zuko said bitterly. “Then at least I’d know that one of them was a traitor. Now I just suspect it. Did you believe Guo?”

“I don’t know,” she said, coming up beside him. “He seemed sincere, but then Osamu always seemed harmless to me. Perhaps I’m just a bad judge of character?”

Zuko let out a breath. “You and me both.”

“Sire? The airship is ready to launch,” Fen said from the doorway as Zuko turned toward him. He nodded and glanced at Suki, whose face was drawn and tired.

“Thank you, Fen. Have my sister and her companion brought to the balloon under full guard, along with my uncle.”

“Of course, sire. At once,” Fen bowed and hurried out of the council room. Zuko stood over the council table, noticing for the first time that it was a brand new table. He felt a lurch of shame when he remembered how he’d burned and destroyed the old one in a fit of rage. Exhaustion clawed at him as he put his hands flat on the table, closing his eyes.

He felt Suki’s hand on his back suddenly, the lightest of touches, soothing, warm and much-needed. He opened his eyes and turned toward her.

“What am I going to do, Suki?”

Suki smoothed her hand down his chest, tugging on the belt of his dark, blood-splattered clothing. The knot had come loose at some point and he watched with baited breath as she tied it for him again, her deft fingers moving gracefully through the fabric. Despite the ever-oppressive heat, her own exhaustion and her blood-splattered clothing, she still looked beautiful and composed.

“Just what you’ve been doing, Zuko,” she said, finishing the knot. She tugged on the neck of his shirt, smoothing the stiffened collar. “Handling this shitstorm one problem at a time and to the best of your ability.”

“Shitstorm?”

“It’s a scientific term,” she teased, her blue eyes gleaming. She dropped her hand and stepped back. “We’d better go see them off.”

He sighed and pushed his hair out of his face, mentally reviewing off his list of things to do. There was still so much to do… He put his hand on her lower back and gestured to the door. “Lead the way, Captain.”

* * *

“I still do not like this, Zuko,” Iroh said heavily as he hovered near the gangplank of the airship. The red balloon had been inflated, the Royal Insignia sparkling bright gold in the early morning sunlight—which was already scorching hot, the heat wave still punishing them. The great iron carriage itself was decorated with gold-leaf too, dazzling the eye. The inside was sumptuously appointed, fit for a Fire Lord and a small entourage.

Suki smiled, remembering the last trip she and Zuko had taken in it. That had been the last trip to Republic City ten months ago, when things had been so strange between herself and Sokka. She and Zuko had sat at the windows while one of the servants steered, playing Pai Sho and laughing over tea.

She could still remember the way the light had struck him, soft and golden, hazy, his rare smile turned on her. That had been a much more carefree time, a happy time.

_Spirits, Sokka was right. I was in love with him, even back then…_

She turned her gaze on Sokka, who was being carried into the carriage by four strapping servants recruited from the stables just for the job. Sokka’s healer was clucking in disapproval, following them with a full kit of medicines and bandages for the journey.

Three of her Kyoshi Warriors were standing in a circle around the airship, fans drawn, glaring at the shadowy confines of the palace.

“I know you don’t, Uncle, but this is the only way I know to make sure nothing happens to any of you. If the Smoke Demons can’t find you, then it’s safer than being here, where everyone is under suspicion.”

“I still don’t understand why I can’t go back to my tea shop.”

“They’ll know to look for you there,” Zuko said tiredly and pulled his uncle into a large hug. “Just please, take care of Sokka. And try to get along with Azula. She needs us, Uncle. She needs her family.”

Suki looked away from the pain on Iroh’s face. “Of course, Zuko. But please make sure that you’re safe as well. I do not want anything to happen to you.”

“I will.”

“IROH!” a shrill voice called from the courtyard hallway, making all of them jump and swivel toward the source. Suki winced when she saw Lady Shura standing there, her hands clasped to her bosom, painted lips open. She was wearing hot pink with embroidered yellow flowers, creating a lurid, psychedelic effect that hurt Suki’s eyes. “Iroh, darling! I was just looking for you!”

Suki glanced at Iroh, who looked like a cornered animal, his face paling under his iron-grey beard. “Lady Shura, how…uh… _nice_ to see you this fine morning. How are you?”

Shura, a weary-looking servant girl trailing after her, came toddling over to them on fashionably too-small sandals. “Despondent. I was hoping you’d come see me in my room last night…”

“Uh…” Iroh started, his face flaming bright red.

“And Fire Lord Zuko! My! What an interesting look!” she said, gesturing to the blood on Zuko’s clothes before leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek. She was tall enough that he nearly got a face full of cleavage. Zuko glanced at Suki with a panicked look on his face and she had to stifle a snort of laughter. “And…oh! Princess Azula!”

“Shura,” Azula drawled, leaning up against the carriage, her ankles crossed. “Aren’t you a little old to be wearing such a _daring_ dress? With _your_ figure?”

Shura’s eyes narrowed at her. “Aren’t you a little too _unincarcerated_ for an assassin?”

“I got out. Good behavior. What’s your excuse?”

“ _Azula_ ,” Zuko admonished, and then turned to Shura, who had rounded on Iroh again and was smoothing down his beard. “You’ll have to forgive my sister, Lady Shura.”

Shura was ignoring him though, cooing at Iroh, who looked like he wanted to gnaw his own arm off to get away. “Are you going somewhere, Irohkins?”

“ _Irohkins?_ ” Suki mouthed at Zuko, who had to bite down on his lower lip stop himself from laughing.

“Uh…yes!” Iroh exclaimed, motioning to the airship with a gigantic grin on his face. “I’m going back to my tea shop in Ba Sing Se. Right away.”

“Oh…but I’d hoped you’d stay longer…” Shura pouted as Iroh slid out from under her hands and all but jogged toward the carriage. “ _Poo_.”

“It was nice seeing you, Lady Shura,” Iroh said and entered the carriage with a wave, leaving her to pout after him. Zuko said something to her, but she just turned and glared at him for a moment and then she stormed away, leaving her servant girl to hasten after her.

“Well, she left in a snit,” Suki said, causing Zuko to turn back to her and pull a relieved grin.

“So long as she left, that’s all I care about,” he said heavily.

Suki laughed and picked up one of the packs sitting next to the carriage, moving to haul it inside, when a lithe body stepped into her path. Suki stopped short, drawing herself up. She found herself staring into Azula’s amber eyes—so like Zuko’s, and yet so very _not._ Where there was warmth in Zuko’s, there was coldness in Azula’s that chilled her to the bone and put her hackles up.

How Sokka had ever found anything in her but that coldness, she couldn’t even guess. Then again, she remembered, just a few short hours earlier, the way Azula had thrown herself at Sokka’s feet, crying…lost and broken.

The two women stared at one another for a long moment. Intense dislike rolled off of Azula in waves and Suki reciprocated the feeling completely. Here was a woman she’d never be friends with, no matter the change in her. It wasn’t because of Sokka either: it was because she didn’t trust her, and she had a feeling Azula felt the same way.

“Azula.”

“Suki.”

She licked her lips, glancing at Zuko, but he was still deep in conversation with Iroh. She bit down on her tongue slightly and then turned back to Azula. “I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for Zuko. And…Sokka.”

It would have been hard to miss the edge in her voice, the things she wasn’t saying, the hurt, the regret… Sharp as ever, Azula picked up on it and grinned at her.

“I just want you to know that he was loyal to you. _Most_ of the time.”

Heat started behind Suki’s ears and she fought the urge to reach for the fan at her hip. “He already told me everything.”

“Did he?” Azula drawled, casting an amused glance at the open carriage door, where they could both see Sokka lying up on his cot. The bandage on his leg was stark white, a small bloom of red in the center. He looked hot and miserable. “How noble of him.”

“Yeah, he’s definitely too good for you.”

Azula’s smile froze in place. “You want him back, try and get him.”

“He’s not a piece of meat, Azula, to be chopped up and chewed on and spit out when it pleases you,” Suki said, taking another step closer, her tone threatening. “You might want to remember that.”

“Or you’ll what?”

“Hunt you down and finish what we started a long time ago. I don’t hold grudges as a general rule, but I’ll make an exception for you, princess. You freak out and go on another crazy spell and he ends up hurt because of it, you won’t have to worry about the Smoke Demons finding you. I’ll do their dirty work for them. Keep him safe.”

“I’d tell you to do the same thing for my brother, but I know how far up his ass you are already,” Azula said smugly. “If someone breathes on him wrong, I’m sure you’ll be there to break their nose for them.”

“Damned right I will be.”

“And to think that Sokka worried about leaving you to Zuko for all of these months. I can’t imagine _why_ ,” Azula said acidly. “You know, after hearing rumor after rumor about his girlfriend and the Fire Lord together, is it any wonder Sokka moved on?”

They glared at one another. There were a lot of things that Suki wanted to say to her—not kind things that rhymed with ‘witch’ and ‘runt’ and ‘pore’, but she bit down on her tongue, not willing to give Azula the satisfaction of knowing that she’d hit the mark dead in the center.

“Keep him safe,” she repeated through her teeth and moved to push past her, but Azula grabbed her arm. She glared at her, just daring her…

“Sokka _is_ too good for me. I know that,” Azula said, surprising her as she turned her cold gaze on her. “But…let’s be honest, sweetheart, do you honestly think that _you’re_ good enough for Zuko?”

Pain radiated throughout Suki’s body as she wrenched her arm out of Azula’s grip. There was a smug smile on the Firebender’s face as Suki stepped back, glaring at her.

“Bitch.”

Azula grinned and walked away, leaving Suki standing there, reeling. The words spin about in her head, poisonous, too familiar by half.

 _I am_ definitel _y never going to be friends with that woman._

Shaking back the sick feeling in her stomach, she entered the carriage and set the bag down next to Sokka’s cot.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” she replied.

“I saw you talking to Azula. How did that go?” She made a face at him and he grimaced. “That well, huh?”

“Well, we didn’t come to blows, so there’s that,” she said, causing Sokka to laugh. He winced and stopped though. “How are you feeling?”

He pulled a wry smile beneath the scrum of his beard. “As okay as I can be right now. I feel like we failed, to be honest. All these months, all of what we went through…and we still don’t have all of the answers. And now I’m being sent away like an invalid. I don’t like it,” he said bitterly.

“Zuko just wants to make sure you’re safe. _I_ just want to make sure you’re safe,” she said forcefully, causing Sokka’s swollen, purple-ringed gaze to lift to hers. He reached out and clasped her hand tightly.

“I’m sorry. About everything between us. I really am.”

She smiled a little, but Azula’s words still stung. “Me too. But I think it was coming for a long time.”

“Yeah,” he said sadly. “I still love you though. You know that, right?”

“I still love you, too. You’re very important to me, Sokka. You’re one of my best friends,” she said, feeling tears in her eyes. “I already lost you in so many ways… I really don’t want to lose you as a friend too.”

“You won’t,” he said and pulled her forward. She wrapped her arms around him, tucking her face against his neck as he did the same. He smelled of antiseptic and blood, but underneath that, there was a touch of the old Sokka, a scent she knew almost as well as her own and she breathed it in, letting it soothe her for one last time. Letting go. “Who knew it would be this complicated?”

“I think it’s supposed to be. It’s complicated because it mattered.”

“Yeah,” he said softly into her hair. “Take care of Zuko.”

“With my life. Don’t let Azula drag out into too much trouble,” she said against his neck, trying not to let her dislike show. Apparently, she didn’t quite manage it, because Sokka pulled back with a chuckle.

“You’re never going to like her, are you?” he asked amusedly.

“Maybe not, but if you love her, then maybe there’s something there I just haven’t seen yet,” she said charitably. “I think you really do love her.”

“I do,” he said, almost apologetically.  He gestured to the window of the airship with a jerk of his chin, where they could see Zuko talking with Iroh and Azula. “And you love him.”

Her face flamed red and she squeezed his hand. “I…”

“He loves you too, you know,” Sokka said as he lay back against the pillow. “Spirits help the both of us. These Fire Nation royalty types are kinda high maintenance.”

“You said it,” she said with a laugh and bent forward, landing a kiss on his forehead. “Take care of yourself, Sokka.”

“You too, Suki,” he said, his face paling a little. Suki nodded and squeezed his hand, standing from her crouch beside his cot. She started to walk away, and Sokka’s hands slipped out of hers slowly. She walked out of the airship and didn’t look back.

* * *

“Have a safe flight,” Zuko said from the door to the airship. Azula met his gaze and nodded, as their uncle stoked the furnace. “Send word of your location to Aang. He’ll relay it to me when it’s safe. Until then I want you to lay low.”

“Where should we go?” Iroh asked, closing the furnace door and moving toward the rudder.

“I don’t know. I don’t _want_ to know,” Zuko said adamantly. “Just please stay safe until this blows over. Azula, I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for me and for the Fire Nation. You too, Sokka.”

“Least I could do. And I’ll get yet another nifty scar out of it,” Sokka said from his cot. He looked as tired as she felt.

“Azula?” Zuko said, calling her attention to him. She blinked, the blood thundering in her veins, the bitter taste of fear in her mouth, though why she couldn’t say. “I meant what I said at the ball. When this is all over…you’re welcome to come home.”

She stared at him, taken aback. She’d forgotten his offer in all the kerfuffle. “Zuko…”

“You’re my sister and…I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me. I want to return the favor. I want to take care of you, whatever that may mean.”

Her illness sat between them all like a burning rock and she shifted uncomfortably in place, not liking the attention one bit. “I… Ummm… I’ll think about it.”

Zuko nodded gravely and stepped back, closing the carriage door.

“Wait!” she called, getting up and rushing to the door and opening it. “Ty Lee! If she…if she wakes up, please… Let us know. And tell her that…that I’m sorry. For everything.”

“I will,” Zuko said and took her hand. He kissed her knuckles and then glanced at Iroh and Sokka. “Take care of them, Azula. Take care of yourself.”

She didn’t say anything. She just closed the carriage door and sat down in the seat. The servants released the ropes as Zuko and Suki backed off. Iroh stoked the furnace and the balloon rose higher and higher, away from the only home she’d ever truly known…

She didn’t know how to feel. Not about Zuko, or his offer, or the mess they were leaving behind them. Everything was unknown and for the first time in over a year, she had no plans, nothing to work towards. As the clouds enveloped them, she felt adrift.

She didn’t like it.

“Azula…”

She looked up to see Sokka holding out his hand to her.

His bandage was soaking through. She’d have to change it once they were more stabilized in the air. Worry struck her. She didn’t like the idea of taking him from the healers so quickly, but they had been through much worse and he would probably be fine.

But she still didn’t have to like it.

At least she’d told off her brother’s smug bodyguard. She smiled a little to herself. Perhaps she’d been a little petty, but she didn’t care. Let Suki stew on what she’d said, it was better than she deserved. Azula had spent too many months watching the way Sokka’s jaw had tightened any time the rumor about Zuko and Suki had surfaced.

 _I’m not jealous though_ , she thought to herself. _I’m not, because he_ _broke up with her. He finally made a choice._

But how long would he stay? He’d promised he wouldn’t leave her last night in the dungeons, but could she honestly believe that? A cold creeping feeling rose up in her as she glanced at him.

She didn’t deserve him and she knew it. He thought he loved her, but there was so much he didn't know about her. So much she hadn't said about what had happened in the Green Heart. If he knew, really knew, he would leave.

Azula swallowed and reached over, taking his hand, needing the reassurance of his touch. The nightmares clung to her for a moment and reality started to slip away into that blind state of anarchy in which she lost control of everything. He was the only lifeline in that darkness though, and she grasped it with both hands, clinging desperately to the only sure thing in her life.

_He’s real. He’s the only thing that’s real._

* * *

Zuko spent the rest of that afternoon issuing orders to his guardsmen, none of whom he really trusted. His options were limited though. The castle was ordered searched from top to bottom. All reports of suspicious persons came up negative. He wrote off several missives to his generals and the head of the city watch, including General Mak. He hadn’t heard from him since his letter informing him of the infiltrators in the army, and Wataa the kitchen boy hadn’t come back yet.

He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Around three in the afternoon, the five Kyoshi Warriors he’d sent to escort the Council home came back to report that the city watch was in place around their homes. He sent them to get some rest immediately, but when he tried to do the same to Suki, she just glared at him.

They had word from the ward that Osamu was still unconscious, but no news about Ty Lee. Exhaustion clung to him, but he refused to give in. He wanted nothing more than to march to the ward and demand that Osamu speak to him, but he knew that would accomplish nothing.

Around eight that night, as the sun was sinking slowly toward the horizon, a messenger came from the healing ward that his presence was requested by Nam-Kyu.

He and Suki raced to the ward, sliding into the room. It had been hours and hours… Surely Ty Lee was okay?

“How is she?” Zuko demanded as they pulled to a gasping stop in the middle of the ward. Kikki and Tam were still guarding Osamu’s door, looking exhausted.

Nam-Kyu was sitting hunched over in a chair, a cup of tea steaming in her hands. Her robes were bloody, her face was sweaty and gray with exhaustion. She turned her gimlet eyes on the two of them and sighed. The old woman looked even more exhausted than they were.

“She’s alive. Had a punctured lung, a couple of broken ribs and a lot of internal bleeding. Her heart stopped beating on me a couple of times and I had to massage it to keep it going. But she pulled through in the end. She’s a tough little girl.”

Relief flooded through him and he released a breath he felt like he’d been holding all day. His legs suddenly felt like gelatin and he sank into a chair as Suki closed her eyes and mumbled something he couldn’t hear over his own pounding heart.

“She’s alive. Ty Lee’s alive.”

“But is she going to be okay?” Suki asked.

Nam-Kyu sat back in her chair and rolled her neck to work out the kinks. “She’d better. I didn’t spend half of the day with her hand in my heart for her to up and die on me. Barring infection, she’ll be right as a kite in a few months. Arrows are nasty business. She’s lucky it missed her spine.”

“Can we see her?”

“Hell no. She’s asleep and in intensive care,” Nam-Kyu snapped impatiently at them. “Fire Lord or not, you’re not disturbing my patient. You can see her tomorrow.”

Zuko let out another breath and leaned over, catching Nam-Kyu’s wrinkled, talented fingers. “Thank you.”

“Just doing my job,” Nam-Kyu said and then peered at him. Her eyebrow lifted.

“What?” he asked.

“You want my professional opinion as a healer, Fire Lord Zuko?” she asked and then plowed on before he could reply, “Get your ass to bed. You look like shit.”

Zuko smiled at her. “Same to you, old woman.”

Nam-Kyu waved her hand at him. “Get the fuck out of my ward.”

* * *

Suki walked beside Zuko as they went down the corridor. Every step seemed like it was weighing her down. She’d been up for almost forty hours, most of that spent on high alert. Her nerves were shot. She was exhausted, hungry and in desperate need of a shower. She’d managed to wash the blood off of her hands from last night, but her clothes were still stiff with it.

She glanced at Zuko, who looked just as tired, though some of the strain had lessened on his face since they’d left Ty Lee sleeping in the ward. They were both moving slowly though, wandering through the quiet corridors and passages back to his suite.

“I’m glad she’s okay,” he said softly. “I was terrified that she wouldn’t pull through.”

“She’s stronger than we give her credit for,” Suki said, touching his arm. Zuko glanced around and stopped, leaning against the wall near an alcove. A golden dragon totem was set into the alcove, surrounded by a flowering plant a lush green color. The smell from the flowers was pungent, filling the air, making her feel heavy-lidded. Zuko caught her hands and tugged her forward. His arms encircled her.

“I know she is,” he said, smiling slightly as he leaned into her. Their foreheads rested together and she breathed in his scent, feeling it calming her frayed nerves. “At least that’s one thing that went right today…”

She smiled tiredly, her eyelids drooping as she leaned into him. “You’re falling asleep on your feet.”

“You too. I think we’ve earned a rest, don’t you? We’re not going to be good for much if we don’t get some sleep,” he said in a lazy rumble, turning his head and pushing it against the curve of her neck.

“Can’t sleep yet. Some of the other girls are pulling double shifts. I have to set a good example.”

“You’re not on a double shift anymore. You’re fast approaching a quadruple-shift, Suki. Look me in the eye and tell me you weren’t going to try and guard me while I was sleeping. You’re as dead on your feet as I am,” he chided gently.

Suki felt her cheeks flush a little, because that was exactly what she’d intended to do. That was truly a sign of how exhausted and clouded her thinking was. She knew that he was right; she’d be asleep in minutes if given half the opportunity. The only thing she could guard was her pillow.

Even now, in this open corridor, she’d let down her guard. They could be attacked at any moment, but she found that she couldn’t—wouldn’t—pull out of his arms.

“I can’t just leave you, Zuko. I'm afraid something will happen to you if I do,” she said with a sigh, Zuko’s strong fingers pressing into her shoulders.

“Then don’t,” he whispered.

“I need a bath and food and warm sheets…”

“I have all of those things in my suite,” Zuko murmured against her ear and then she felt his mouth brush her neck. An electric shot ran through her from head to toe and she turned her face into his neck, her heart hammering hard in her chest.

“What exactly are you suggesting?” she whispered as Zuko’s hand spread on her upper back, rubbing gently.

“Stay with me,” he said simply, as she drew back. There was naked emotion in his gaze and, exhausted though he was, there was a soft determination there, a need. She felt his need echo through her, soul-deep, arousing.

She didn’t hesitate. “Okay.”


	16. Chapter 16

Suki’s hand was warm in his, solid, reassuring, keeping him tethered. Despite his exhaustion, a surge of adrenaline had spiked through him, clearing away the muzzy feeling that had been clouding his head for the last couple of hours.

He looked back at her shyly, nearly stumbling over his own two feet as they approached the stairs toward his suite. At the bottom were two of the Kyoshi Warriors and Suki stopped to talk to them, while he practically vibrated out of his skin, not really paying attention to what they were saying. All he could think about was the thought of Suki in his bed. Even though they were only going to sleep, the thought was intoxicating. Having her that close…

His heart was in his throat as Suki pulled him up the stairs. She was biting her lower lip in that enticing way of hers, shadows beneath her eyes.

There were two more Warriors guarding the outside of his suite, and there was a servant standing at attention against the wall.

“Please bring up food and chamomile tea,” Zuko said to the servant. “Some fruit, cheese, bread and maybe a little bit of meat.”

The servant bowed and took off down the stairs, leaving Zuko to turn to Suki, who was talking to the two guardswomen at his door.

“There will be a shift change in less than an hour. Get some food and get some sleep. I want you back on duty in eight hours,” Suki said heavily to them as they opened the locked door to his suite. They made him stay there while they checked each room, and then came back to give him the all-clear.

He took Suki’s hand and pulled her into the suite. He didn’t miss the knowing looks Rin and Chao-Ahn sent each other before the doors closed.

Suki walked into the middle of his suite, rolling her shoulders, her hands combing through her hair. “I want a bath in the worst way. I’m sweaty and sticky and I smell like blood.”

“I’ll go draw you a bath. You can take one first.”

Suki turned to him and cocked her head to the side, nibbling her lip nervously as her hot gaze raked him. “Or we could take one together.”

If felt like the floor dropped out from underneath him and he stared at her unblinkingly.

“Unless you don’t want to,” she said quickly.

“I…” he started, his voice a harsh croak. He stopped, cleared his throat and then said, “Yeah. I… Yes! Yes. I want to.”

Suki’s cheeks were red as he just stared at her, unable to look away. He didn’t know what his heart was doing. Galloping out of his chest, from the feel of it. His adrenaline spiked again, banishing the last of his sleepiness. He swallowed and nodded.

“I didn’t bring any clothes.”

“You can wear something of mine,” he said in a tight, eager voice and licked his lips. “I’d better go draw the bath.”

“I can do that,” Suki said quickly. “Get us some clothes while I run the water.”

“Okay…”

He stood rooted to the spot, watching her walk away. His palms were sweaty, his mouth dry. There was an air of unreality about everything all of a sudden. Maybe he’d been up too long. Or maybe it was just that he’d had this fantasy any number of times over the past several months. It was hard to believe that it was really happening.

Suki entered the bathroom and he heard the taps in his massive tub turn on, followed by a cloud of billowing steam. Closing his dry mouth, he went into the bedroom and rooted through his expansive wardrobe, grabbing up a comfortable pair of maroon pants for himself, and sleeveless pajama top for Suki that matched his pants. It was long on him, and would probably fall halfway down her thighs.

Arousal hit him at the thought of Suki wearing his clothes and he felt a tingle trail down his spine and explode in his groin. Sweat beaded on his upper lip as he glanced at the open bathing room door.

He let out a breath and walked into the room. The heat of the day was still clinging to the palace and walking into the moist, steamy air in the bathing room was like walking in soup.

Suki was sitting on the edge of the sunken tub, which was big enough to hold five people. Six if you were feeling adventurous.

“I hope this will do,” he said, holding up the shirt. She nodded and pulled her hair out of its half-ponytail, letting the reddish brown strands fall against her damp neck.

“It’ll be fine,” she said as he put them down beside the large stack of fluffy white towels.  She started to say something else, but there was a knock from the door of the suite.

“It’s probably the food. I’ll be right back,” he mumbled and rushed out of the room. He opened the door and the servant wheeled in a golden cart laid out with a tray of fresh fruit; grapes, oranges, berries, and juicy melon slices; a thick loaf of warm bread with butter melting down the seasoned crust, cubes of sharp, salty cheese; a plate of steaming, spiced sausage beneath a silver dome, and beside it, a piping hot pot of tea, the calming scent of chamomile wreathing through the air.

Zuko’s stomach growled and he was suddenly very keenly aware that he hadn’t eaten in over a day. Not since lunch before that stupid ball, and he’d mostly picked at his plate, too nervous to eat. His appetite roared back, demanding satisfaction.

The growl of his stomach was only matched by the growing, persistent ache in his loins. He thanked the servant, closed and locked the door behind him and then, popping a hunk of cheese into his mouth, wheeled the cart back into the bathroom.

“I figured we could eat while we’re in the…” he started, picking up a piece of melon and bringing it up to his mouth, just as he looked up at Suki. He stopped with his mouth open, his fingers tightening on the melon, squishing it to a pulp as he stared at her through the steam.

His gaze willingly trailed down her naked body with a mind of its own. She’d undressed while he’d answered the door and her dirty clothing was at her bare feet in a dark pile. Her body was curvy, muscular, sensual, with high, full breasts and nipples the color of lush red roses. Her skin was creamy, covered in a fine sheen of sweat from the hot air. The wound on her shoulder stood out like an angry red seam. She took a deep breath, the movement pushing out her breasts and hollowing her stomach just the slightest bit so that he could see her ribcage.

“Suki… _Naked_ ,” he said stupidly, feeling like a bumbling teenage boy all of a sudden. “You’re naked. You’re naked, Suki.”

She was biting her lip again, a sign of her nervousness, and he felt that tug in his midsection that went straight to his long-ignored cock.

_She’s beautiful… Perfect. Flawless._

Suki slowly walked toward him and he found it difficult to look in her eye, but he did it. The connection sent a shock right through him and all of a sudden he couldn’t help but remember the way she’d kissed him in the corridor at the ball. The way he’d roughly pushed her against the wall, the way their bodies had touched, grinding, pushing, yearning…

“You expected me to bathe with my clothes on?” she teased with a little smile that sent his heart caroming out of his chest.  He wiped the squished melon on his dirty pants, his hands shaking.

“Honestly, I think my brain took a vacation a few hours back…and this is not helping,” he breathed as she laughed huskily.

“I know what’ll help…” she said and reached out, taking hold of the belt at his waist. He watched as her clever fingers deftly undid the knot she’d tied in it hours ago—had it only been a few hours? It felt like days.

“I don’t think leveling the playing field is going to help all that much in this situation,” he said and she stuck her tongue out at him, dimples in her cheeks.  Grinning, he leaned in just as she got his belt undone, letting it drop to the floor at their feet.

“Stick your tongue out at me again and I’ll bite it for you,” he whispered into her ear, surprising not only her, but himself as well. He saw a shiver run along Suki’s bare skin, her hands tightening on his waist as she drew in a shallow breath, her wet lips parting.

His pulse thundered. Had he really just said that?

Emboldened, he turned his head and ran his nose up the column of her neck, his mouth dragging along her sweaty skin, collecting the salty taste of her. Suki’s whole body shuddered, her eyes slamming shut as he pulled back, his mouth hovering over hers.

“Is that a threat?” she asked softly, as he felt her fingers slid into the front of his shirt and caress along his lower belly. He stifled a groan at her touch, suddenly remember how hard she’d tried not to touch him when she’d been teaching him how to dance. Memories of the long days in his dojo filled him; her body against his…moving with the music… Every move had been sensual, seductive, addicting… He’d been trying desperately not to give away his feelings the whole time, ashamed at himself, sure that she didn’t feel the same…

How wrong he’d been.

His hands touched her soft, bare waist, gathering her against him.

“Maybe,” he said and slid his mouth gently over hers. Suki relaxed into him as her hands spread up his chest, her nails digging in just enough to send shivers racing down his skin. Her lips were soft and questing against his and when he skimmed her lower lip with the tip of his tongue, she made a soft little whimpering sound that shot straight through his skin, his balls tightening.

Suki’s lips parted and he flicked his tongue along the inside of her lip, gently, teasingly. He trailed his left hand up her back and sank his hands into the damp hair clinging to the back of her neck, turning her face upward a little. His other hand flattened on her lower back, bringing their lower bodies into contact.

A rough groan left him as Suki’s tongue massaged his for one hot moment. He withdrew, catching her bottom lip and tugging on it, just enough to make her gasp a little. He released her and she chased him, standing up on her tiptoes, her kiss hot and hard, expectant.

His mouth opened to hers, deepening the kiss, his hand tightening in her hair. Her tongue flicked his and he gently bit down on it, pulling on it like he had her lower lip.

He let it go and exhaled softly against her smiling lips. “Told you I’d bite it.”

“Zuko…”

“The water’s going to overflow,” he said and she started, her eyes flying open. She whipped away from him, skidding across the tiles to the faucet, which was shaped like a golden dragon, hot water pouring from its open mouth instead of fire. She turned off the taps as he laughed and shrugged out of his shirt. “Get in.”

He grabbed the tray of food and tea and carefully carried it over to the little raised dais set at one end of the massive tub, watching out of the corner of his eye as Suki tested the water with a toe and then slowly walked down the tiled steps into the steaming water. Her eyes closed as the tension seemed to seep out of her all at once. The tub was three feet deep, with a little rim set inside of it for sitting. Suki dunked down into the water, wetting her hair.

When she came back up, her hair was plastered back against her skull, her skin pink from the hot water, glistening and delectable. His cock stirred again and he swallowed.

_Play it cool. Just…play it cool…_

“How’s the water?” he asked as he kicked off his boots and unlaced his pants. Suki’s smile was indecent as she turned her face upwards.

“ _Glorious_ ,” she said fervently.

“Mmmm… I’ll bet it’s not as good as my view though,” he said as he shimmied out of his pants and underwear. Suki bit down on her lower lip again and he saw her cheeks go even redder.

“My view isn’t so bad either,” she said, leaning back against the side of the tub, her elbows resting on the lip, her nipples barely visible at the waterline. She was watching him with obvious appreciation in her eyes as he stood upright. In more ways than one.

He flushed, fighting the urge to put his hands in front of his obvious reaction to her, but he knew she’d already felt his erection while they’d been kissing. He’d practically been poking her with it.

Girding himself, Zuko carefully walked down the steps and sank into the water. She was right. It _was_ glorious, especially after the past twenty-four hours of stress, sweat, blood and anxiety. The water was just on this side of bearable, almost _too_ hot, which was how he liked it. He sank down in it to his neck and moaned.

“This…is _heaven_ …” he said, sliding onto the little ledge. He tilted back his head and closed his eyes for a moment, letting the stress wash away from him. “Let’s just…forget all the bullshit for a little while, okay? The Smoke Demons, Osamu, all of that is off the table until dawn. I might scream if I stress about it another minute.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Suki said as he forced his eyes open again, which wasn’t easy.  

“We should eat,” he said, blinking rapidly to wake himself up. He stood in the water and poured them some tea, then handed on of the cups to her. He sank back down into the water, popping more cheese into his mouth and then spearing a sausage and some bread. He was _ravenous._

He watched Suki eat as he did the same, his gaze on her lips. When he held out a bit of melon to her, she leaned forward and gently took it into her mouth. He swallowed hard, watching her lick, and then bite her lips.

“I love it when you do that.”

“What?” she asked, her brow furrowing.

“Chew on your lip. It’s sexy,” he said, his heart racing, as she set her tea cup down on the tray.

“Oh…um…” she blushed.

“Do you know how long I’ve wanted to tell you that?”

“Why didn’t you?”

“You know why,” he replied quietly. A million unspoken things unraveled between them. Sokka. Azula. Their kisses in the hallway at the ball…and the three words he’d let slip on the balcony that night. He could see in her eyes that she remembered them, and remembered, too, that he hadn’t been able to bring himself to deny them, even when he knew that he should have. 

“Did you send Sokka away to make sure we didn’t get back together?” Suki asked, surprising him. His brows shot up, but he didn’t immediately answer. His hasty decision to send Sokka, Azula and Iroh away definitely bore thinking about.

 _Had_ he done that, out of some latent jealous feeling?

“I don’t think so,” he finally said, putting down his tea cup. “I mean, if I did, I didn’t realize it at the time. I meant what I said about wanting them safe. And…I know you still love him.”

“I do,” she said heavily, and he felt a soft blow, just behind his sternum. He swallowed as Suki pressed her lips together for a moment. “But I don’t think I’m _in love_ with Sokka anymore. He feels the same way.”

“He told me as much.”

Suki stared at him for a long moment and then pushed away from the side of the tub and came toward him with a gentle slosh. He tensed, need clenching low in his guts. His hand found her waist below the water again and he pulled her to him eagerly. She settled on his lap, steam rising off of her shoulders.

Suki smiled and then reached up, gently tugging his hair out of its heavy topnotch. His hair fell down around his shoulders in a thick black curtain. Suki pulled her hands through it, untangling it and drawing it over one of his broad shoulders.

“Suki…”

Her lashes lowered for a moment and then she looked up, meeting his gaze with a hot blue intensity that shook him to his core.

“He thinks I’ve been in love with you for a long time, Zuko,” she said softly.

His throat felt tight, constricted. “And what do you think?”

Suki licked her lips, playing with his hair, swirling it around her fingers. He never wanted her to stop doing that…not _ever_ …

“Do you remember the day you signed the Sexuality and Non-Binary Genders Equality Act, and Ty Lee couldn’t stop crying because you and I managed to keep the news that you were even creating the law a surprise?”

He smiled softly at the four-year-old memory. It had been one of his proudest days, and one of the only times he’d gone completely over the heads of his Council, who had vehemently opposed the law. “Of course I do.”

He’d still been dating Mai then, and Ty Lee had cried herself sick on his shoulder. He had a very clear memory of Mai rolling her eyes in exasperation at Ty Lee, and then of him looking to Suki for help. She’d only smiled at him. He felt a tug in his midsection at the memory, an echo of the happiness he’d felt that day. He had no idea why Suki was bringing it up though.

“Zuko, I think that was the day that I fell in love with you,” she whispered. Zuko’s heart stopped. He stilled, staring at her through the steamy air.

“You’re in love with me?” he breathed, his pulse jumping back to life.

“Yes. And you…” she started, biting down on her lip again before continuing, “You said you loved me on the balcony that night. Did you mean it?”

He reached up and swept his thumb across her cheek, staring into her eyes for a long moment, a little smile half-cocked on his lips. “Of course I did. You _know_ I did.”

Suki put her hands flat on his chest and leaned in, her lips hovering over his. “Say it again.”

His pulse jumped with a surge of adrenaline as he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her against him with a slosh of water. Her breasts pressed into his chest, the dig of her nipples sending runnels of want charging through him.

“I’m in love with you.”

Suki kissed him slowly, sensually, the sweet, sticky taste of melon clinging to her lips, exploding across his tongue. The kiss seemed to have no end, igniting a fire within him that raged instantly out of control.

Despite everything—Ty Lee, the Smoke Demons, Sokka—he felt something in him rejoice. This was right. She was everything he wanted. _Something_ in his life finally made sense.

_I’m hers. Completely hers…_

Suki’s hand sunk into his hair, sending little shivers of pleasure racing down his wet skin. His cock twitched between them as Suki’s hips slowly ground against his. When her other hand slipped down below the water and encircled him, he strangled out a shuddering cry against her lips, his hips bucking upward, lifting her with him.

He pulled back, mouth open, breathing ragged, as Suki stroked him beneath the water.

“Suki…” he moaned, his head tipping back, pleasure roaring through him.  “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to…”

“Are you kidding me? I’ve wanted to rip your clothes off for _months_ ,” Suki said, her mouth nipping down his throat. He pulled her even closer, grasping her chin and bringing her mouth back to his. He slammed a rough, needy kiss to her lips, then released her and bent his head, pulling one soft red nipple into his mouth.

Suki cried out, her back bowing, her hands tight in his hair, her breath in ear. He pulled deeply on her nipple, rolling it between his lips, nipping with his teeth. She was salty and warm, growing hard in his mouth. Her whole body tensed as she squirmed against him. His throbbing cock was trapped between their bodies, her fingers tightening around him.

When he released her nipple, Suki was breathing hard, her mouth hovering over his. His blood roared in his ears, need driving him on, past his exhaustion and into a clenching, aching state of being, one that demanded release. Demanded _more_.

Zuko’s hands clasped her hips and he lifted her against him, positioning her over the tip of his cock, asking without words, unable to articulate what he wanted, needed…

Suki smiled against his lips and then answered him by sinking down onto him slowly. His breath hitched as her sweet, responsive body devoured his, taking him in deeply, slowly, inch by hot inch until she came to rest on his lap. He throbbed inside of her, the ache too much to bear, the pleasure and pressure seeping into his bones, like the heat of the steaming water surrounding them.

“Zuko,” Suki breathed against his mouth. He closed his eyes for moment, stilling beneath her as every instinct in his body wanted to drive him on, to find his release as soon as possible. When he opened his eyes, he met her gaze, a little smile cocking his lips.

His hips rose up a little and he filled her and withdrew, slowly, his breath caught somewhere in his chest. Suki’s mouth opened, her arms around his neck as she rode him. Water sloshed around them, lapping at her breasts, churning in the little space between their bodies.

“Yes…”

Suki rose up and then thrust back down on him, knocking a moan out of him. He gripped her slippery hips and moved with her, leaning forward to capture her enticing mouth.

Moans passed between their mouths, her sleek body clenching tightly around him. His hand dug into her buttocks as Suki’s nails sank into his shoulders. Her back bowed, hips rolling as she ground herself down on him, the water slapping at them. He pressed one hand into her lower stomach, moving her back and forth. When his thumb found the taut little nub of her clit, her whole body spasmed.

“ _Aah!_ Yes!” Her head tipped back, exposing her throat. Zuko bit down on his lip, trying to hold on, but the tight clench of her body was sending him careening toward the edge.  His hips rose up with a sharp, rough thrust that knocked her mouth open in a silent cry of pleasure.

“Suki…” he breathed as he gathered her up against him, his teeth scoring her neck. Her head turned and she kissed him roughly, undulating against him in a desperate bid for completion.

It all seemed to happen at once. Suki’s breathy cries filled the air as her body tightened around him. He drove himself into her as she came, taking her mouth with his own. A rough growl escaped him as he fell over the edge, tumbling into her with a hot burst that left him shaking beneath her.

Every muscle in his body quivered and then turned into limp pasta. He panted against Suki’s neck, rubbing her back, little tremors shocking through his system.

He lifted his head and looked up into her somnolent eyes. He pushed her damp hair back from her face and then kissed her lips, her cheeks, and down her neck. Suki relaxed against him, as spent as he was.

His eyes closed and drifted off into a drugging blackness that ached to drag him down.

Suki’s fingers stroked the back of his neck, her teeth nipping his ear. “You’re falling asleep inside of me.”

He forced his eyes open and took a deep breath. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay…if I wasn’t afraid of drowning, I’d fall asleep right here, too,” Suki said amusedly, lifting up and sliding away from him. He moaned at the loss of contact with her body, even as his eyelids threatened to close on him yet again.

“Haven’t even washed yet,” Zuko mumbled as Suki huffed out a little laugh and reached for the soap and the sea sponge sitting beside the lip of the tub. He watched as she soaped up the sponge and then stood, water trickling down her body.  She lathered up the sponge and then ran it along her body while he watched in rapt fascination.

She rinsed off by sinking back down into the water, and then looked at him expectantly.

“Stand up,” she said, and he immediately moved to obey, watching as she stood with him. She lathered up the sponge again and then ran it across his chest, down his arms and back and then, finally, against his softened cock.

At the feel of her hand there, he moaned and felt himself grow hard again.

Suki’s head tipped back and she looked up at him, one eyebrow quirking. His face flamed bright red.

“And here I thought you were tired…”

“Did I, uh, mention that it’s been two years since I’ve…?”

“Poor Zuko. But lucky me,” she said with a wide grin, her soapy hand replacing the rough sponge. He hissed between his teeth as she stroked him. His eyes slammed shut and he breathed hard, feeling his whole world narrowing on the tug of her hand.

After a moment, he felt her shift and opened his eyes to watch her reach over and grasp one of the golden cups sitting beside the soap dish. She filled it with water and then poured it over him, washing away the suds.

Then she put the cup down and looked up at him shyly. “Sit down on the edge of the tub, Zuko.”

His throat tightened and he nodded, grasping a towel and placing it on the lip of the tub and across the damp tiles. He sat down and Suki put her knees on the little sitting ledge inside the tub, her body fitting in between his knees.

She grasped his cock and lifted her mouth to his. He kissed her softly, moaning as she stroked him, his hands pushing her damp hair back from her face. She sucked on his lower lip and then trailed her mouth down his chin, down his chest and stomach, her tongue sliding along his warm, clean skin.

When she took him into her mouth, it was all he could do not to strangle out her name. He breathed hard as Suki kneeled in the water, her mouth shaping him rapidly.

“Suki… _Ungh!_ ”

Her hand followed the tight wet suction of her mouth, causing little sparks to dance in his vision. The sight of her there, on her knees in the water before him was too much to handle.

“I’m gonna…” he warned, but Suki merely pulled him deeper into her mouth, her fist rapidly pumping him until he couldn’t withstand the pleasure any longer. He came into her mouth with a hard groan, his hips lifting to thrust past her sheathed teeth.

Suki looked up at him, swallowing, her tongue swirling against his hard flesh. When she pulled off of him, he let out a breath he hadn’t realized that he was holding. He caressed her face and let a dreamy expression cross his scarred face.

“You’re incredible.”

Suki grinned at him. “And you’re about to pass out. Come on. Let’s get to bed. I’m so tired I could sleep for a week.”

They climbed out of the tub together and he briskly toweled off and pulled on his pajama pants. His hands were shaking. He couldn’t believe the past hour had happened.

_I had sex with Suki. In my bathtub. And she loves me._

His brain crawled along, limping like an injured animal, trying to process it all. He decided to stop trying though. He’d handle that in the morning. He turned and saw Suki belting his shirt. It came to mid-thigh on her and was loose and comfortable looking.

He took her hand and led her into his bedroom. He climbed beneath the thin covers and then patted the massive bed beside him as he tossed his long hair across the red satin pillow, making damp spots that his housekeeper would kill him for. _She’s going to have to get in line, I guess._

Suki climbed into the bed and snuggled up beside him. He twitched the cool sheet back over them and then wrapped one arm around her waist, tugging her back against his chest. She smelled like his soap and he found that he loved it, as he pushed his face against the back of her neck and closed his eyes.

“The candles?”

“Hmmm?”

“You forgot the candles.”

“Oh yeah,” he mumbled and waved his hand. The inside of his bedroom went dark as the flames died to nothing. He kissed the back of her neck and he felt, rather than heard her sigh against him. Suki’s fingers laced with his and he smiled against her skin. “Love you…”

“I love you too,” she replied, but he was already out cold.


	17. Chapter 17

Suki woke to the sound of a distant rumble and a flash on the inside of her eyelids. She was vaguely aware of warmth at her back and a hand across her stomach. Soft breath caressed her neck and she smiled sleepily into the pillow, remembering last night.

It felt like some sort of dream.

 _I had sex with Zuko last night_ , she thought, biting down on her lip as she pushed her hips back into him. Zuko immediately groaned and flattened his hand on her stomach. She felt the not-so-subtle dig of his cock against her lower back, and a thrill went through her, banishing the last of her sleepiness.

At the same moment, a loud, rolling growl of thunder sounded from the open window, surprising her into sitting up on one elbow. She stared out one of Zuko’s massive balcony doors. It was still dark outside, but flashes of lightning flickered in the distance, illuminating the mountainous crags of the caldera. A cool breeze, smelling of ozone, blew in through the open window, banishing the heat that had been driving them all insane for weeks.

“Suki?” Zuko mumbled into the pillow, his fingertips digging into her hip as he tried to pull her closer to him. She smiled and bent over him, brushing his tangled hair off of his neck. “Is it storming?”

“Yeah. I hope the heat wave has finally broken…”

“Me too,” Zuko said. “What time is it?”

“We’ve got a little while before they break the door down,” she whispered and nuzzled his ear, causing his eyes to snap open. He’d definitely caught the soft edge of her words, the thing she wasn’t saying. He turned his head and their gazes met in the darkness. “Unless you want to go back to sleep?”

“Oh, no… I’m up. I’m suddenly _very_ up,” he said, his breathing picking up a little as his gaze flickered to her mouth. He waved his finger and the candles at his bedside flared to life, flooding the room with a soft, warm light.

He looked delicious lying there with his long, dark hair tangled against his neck and spread out on the pillows, just begging to be played with. His chin and cheeks were dark with stubble, as he hadn’t shaved for two days. She’d liked feeling his stubble last night, the way it had grazed her, sending little jolts along her skin. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and every blissful, muscled inch of him made her body vibrate with need. She wanted to run her tongue along his chest, to taste his skin…

 _I got a pretty good taste last night…but I want more_ , she thought and blushed a little at the memory of taking him into her mouth. Zuko lifted his hand and brushed her own hair back, tucking it behind her ears.

“Don’t tell me I dreamed last night,” he said softly as some warm, molten core in her stomach heated up. His touch sent little thrills singing through her skin. She’d been trying for so long to ignore the way he made her feel. It was sweet relief to bask in the notion of just _being_ with him. Just knowing that she could was enough.

Thoughts of Sokka and the breakup flitted through her mind, but she pushed them back. As confused and as sad as she still was over what had happened, she refused to let it weigh her down right now.

“Oh, we definitely made love in your bathtub, Fire Lord Zuko,” she said teasingly and was rewarded with a high flush in his cheeks. She still couldn’t believe they’d made love in the tub, of all places…

Just thinking of the look on his face, the soft questioning as he’d lifted her over him, asking silently if she wanted it as much as he did, ignited a fire inside of her. It had been totally unplanned, an in-the-moment decision that she didn’t regret in the least. She had a feeling he didn’t either.

She grinned at him. “Guess the rumors were true. We _are_ sleeping together.”

“I hate proving them right,” he said with a playful sigh.

“Well, if you’re having second thoughts, I guess I’ll just go,” she started, pulling away from him, but he reached out and grasped her by the waist, tugging her back into the bed. She landed with a soft thump, giggling as Zuko caught her hands and pinned them to the pillow.

“Oh no, no, no…I’m not giving you up, not now that I finally have you all to myself,” Zuko said darkly, his hair falling across one shoulder as he pinned her down. He lowered himself down and ran his nose down the column of her neck, and then up to her ear.

She suppressed a groan as a hot tingle started in her groin and spread insistently along her nerve-endings. She flexed her hands beneath his and turned her head a little. Just enough to nip his chin.

“You think you have me?” she challenged as Zuko’s knee parted hers and settled, right against her crotch. She wasn’t wearing any underwear beneath the loose shirt she’d borrowed from him and the soft material of his pants made her gasp a little.

At the same moment, an eruption of thunder blasted the air apart, causing them both to jump. Rain was coming. She could smell it, the sticky dampness creeping into the room with a blast of soupy humidity.

“Don’t I?” Zuko mumbled with a soft little smile that made her pulse race. He released her wrists and she immediately put her hands on his ribs, spreading her fingers, touching the places she’d always ached for him to touch. His skin was like molten rock stretched over bone, all lean muscle and delicious skin. _Enticing._ “I’ve wanted you for so long, Suki… You drive me crazy.”

“I do?”

Zuko pushed his face into her hair, lowering himself down against her. His hand ran along her side, clutching her hip, and then sinking beneath the hem of her shirt. His fingers skimmed her hip bone and she lifted her hips up, begging for him to touch her…

“You’re all I think about. I knew that I shouldn’t,” he mumbled, his mouth finding her neck and trailing wet little kisses up and down, nipping her ear, and then dragging back to collarbone. She squirmed beneath him, sliding her hands around to his back.

She ran her nails lightly along his skin and he groaned low and deep, pressing his erection into her hip with a grinding dig. She gasped and gently nibbled his shoulder.

“I knew it was wrong… But all I wanted was to be close to you. To touch you. I’ve been addicted to you for months,” he said roughly as she bit down on her lip.

Zuko smiled and then kissed her gently, thoroughly. He tasted of sleep and _Zuko_ and he smelled even better. Like sex and soap and carnal fire. It was enough to make her head spin. When he pulled back, she was panting, her legs up around his hips, her pelvis pushing into his.

 _Addicted?_ Oh, she definitely knew that feeling. She could definitely get addicted to the way he kissed her; like nothing else in the world mattered, like he was worshipping her…

“Shouldn’t we be dealing with assassins and traitors and nefarious plots to marry you off?” she said gently, amused as he panted against her lips.

“Fuck it. If they murder me, I want to go out a happy man,” he said, warming her to her toes.

“I think I can help with that,” Suki said, gathering up his hair in one hand and turning his head. She licked his neck and then bit his earlobe, tugging on it. “Take off your pants.”

Zuko shuddered above her and turned his head, capturing her lips. He kissed her deeply, wildly, a little roughly, his weight pressing her down onto his massive bed. She got her hand down between them and when she skimmed the bulge of his erection through his pants, he groaned and shot up onto his knees, rolling to the side and flipping his legs over the side of the bed.

She rolled over onto her side and watched as he stood up, shoving his pants down his hips. He sat back down on the edge of the bed to kick them free of his legs. Suki rolled over and climbed to her knees, crawling across the bed toward him.

She loved the way the candlelight played along the muscles of his back, the way shadows crept and nestled in his shoulder blades.  Zuko tensed and then relaxed when she slid her arms around his trunk, pressing her cheek against his back. He caressed the back of her hand on his stomach as she gently kissed his shoulder.

“Suki?” he said, his voice rumbling like the thunder.

“You looked too good to resist,” she said and slid her hand down his stomach, raking her fingernails through the hair there. When she wrapped her fingers around his cock, he all but jolted in her arms, hissing through his teeth and tensing. She smiled and nibbled on the back of his shoulder, tugging at him.

Zuko caught her hand and half turned to face her. “Keep that up and I’ll disappoint the both of us…”

“Doubt that,” she said, her gaze flicking to his mouth and back to his intense, burning eyes.

He groaned and leaned forward, launching himself at her. They landed in a tumble, limbs everywhere, his mouth latching onto hers. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he caught her by the waist and moved her up the bed. She landed on the pillows again, laughing, as Zuko straddled her legs.

He reached for the ties on her shirt, undoing them with an impatient jerk. He bent down and kissed her naked skin between each gap he created, until finally he laid the shirt open. Suki clasped him to her, as his tongue ran along her skin, up the center of her body, dipping into the whorl of her navel and then trailing hungrily to her breasts.

Her back bucked up off of the bed as he sucked her right nipple into his mouth, rolling it between the soft of his lips, teasing it with the tip of his tongue. His stubble grazed her, setting off little prickles of pleasure.

“Yes…” she breathed, her fingers threating through his hair, every inch of her glorying in the deep, wet suction at her breast. Little tingles exploded down her center and she felt the wetness tickling between her legs. She shifted beneath him, but he held her down, one hand on her hip, the other kneading her left breast. “ _Aaagh_ ….Zuko…”

She felt his cock push into her lower belly, insistent and hard. When she reached down and wrapped her hand around it again, Zuko gave a hard groan and gently bit down on her nipple, glancing up at her with a hot flash of his eyes.

Then he trailed his mouth across her chest, lazily dragging his bottom lip along her skin, his hot breath bathing her.

She breathed shallowly, trembling as he took her other nipple into his mouth and pulled on it. Her head tipped back, her fingers sliding along his satin-sheathed flesh. She wanted him inside of her. Wanted to feel him take her… _needed_ it…

Zuko caught her stroking hand again, pinning both of her wrists to the bed. She couldn’t move, trapped there, at his mercy.

She loved it.

He let her nipple go and brought his mouth back to hers, kissing her deeply as she squirmed beneath him. He let her go and whispered raggedly against her lips, “I need you.”

“I’m yours.”

He released her hands and pushed her legs open with his knees again, fitting himself in between her sleek thighs like he belonged there. _Oh, he does. I never want him to be anywhere else…_

He fired off a kiss across her lips that sizzled, scorching her from head to toe as he grasped her thighs and drew them up his hips. She grasped his face, lifting her head to meet his blistering kiss, her tongue rolling against his. She felt his cock nudge against her wet opening and then slide up and down her sex with a grinding drag that made her gasp.

Zuko’s hand followed, his thumb pressing into her, sinking deep. Suki bit down on her lower lip, tilting her head back as he worked his thumb in and out of her, then withdrew it and pressed the tip of his cock against her opening.

“Yes…” she moaned and then…

And then he was there, inside of her, pressing in, filing her, thick and warm and throbbing as he stopped half-way in, letting her adjust. Letting them both feel the sensation. She looked up at him, her mouth open, taking shallow breaths as his hips twitched against hers.

“ _Perfect_ ,” Zuko breathed as Suki lifted her hips upward, taking him the rest of the way. Zuko groaned and sank onto her, kissing her hard. They rocked together, the deep connection of their bodies sending little jolts of pleasure through her. Her pulse raced.

Yes… This was what she’d wanted. Him. Just him…

Zuko pulled back, taking her in shallow thrusts as he propped himself up on his arms. She looked up at him, gazes connected. Her hands slid along his skin; his chest, his stomach, his back, his flexing buttocks. Pleasure laced through her, racing her thumping heart.

“Right there,” she moaned as Zuko surged against her. She rose up to meet his slow thrusts, feeling every inch of him. It was like heaven.

Zuko bent and kissed her again as she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his lower back, ankles crossed. He groaned and shifted his hips up and down, making a hot, wet explosion tear through her lower body. She turned her head to the side and he buried his face in her short hair.

“Tell me what you need…” he gasped and she bit down on her lip, lifting herself up off of the bed.

“Harder…” she managed, biting down on his shoulder. He caught her mouth, slamming a rough, hard kiss to her lips that stole her breath. She gave as good as she got though, nipping his lip and suckling his tongue into her mouth.

Zuko pulled off of her and put his weight on his knees, driving himself into her fast and hard. She loved it. He leaned over, grasping her hip with one hand, and the carved wooden headboard with the other, bracing himself as he fucked her.

Pleasure built within her, hot and hard, tearing down on everything its wake as he took her to the brink. Suki pulled her knees up, biting her lip as she clutched his working hips.

“Yes! _Aah!_ Zuko!”

She looked up at him, their gazes connected as she panted, open-mouthed, her head buzzing. Zuko’s face was a mask of concentration, his eyes blazing with every thrust as he gripped the headboard. His other hand pushed between her legs, his thumb pressing down against her clit with a hard rub that send shockwaves throughout her body.

Her head went back, eyes slamming shut as a strangled scream left her. Pleasure burst through her, uncontrollable and all-consuming. She clenched around him, her legs tightening on his hips as she lifting her hips into his.

She pulled him down over top of her and he kissed the ragged gasps from her lips as his hips snapped against hers, fast and rough. She felt his whole body quiver and then he pulled out of her with a growl against her mouth. She felt his cock slide against her belly and then felt the hot, wet spurt as he came.

Suki tangled her hand in his hair as he stiffened above her, his hips still working in little waves, his cock rubbing wetly between their bodies.

She kissed him softly, trying to recapture her breath as Zuko’s hips stilled and he sank his weight on top of her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling his thumping heart against hers as he turned his head and buried his face into her neck.

She could feel the rough skin of his scar against her cheek. Turning her head, she gently kissed it, shocking him into lifting his head. He stared at her for a moment, confused, but she grasped his head and lifted up. He didn’t pull away when she kissed his scarred eyelid, and then trailed her lips up his brow, and then down his temple. She could feel the burn beneath her lips, the knotted tissue, the uneven surface.

When she pulled back, Zuko stared at her, his hair a mess, his stubbled cheeks dark in the candlelight.

“Do you know how gorgeous you are?” she whispered, caressing his chin and then smoothing her thumb over his lip. He caught her hand and kissed her palm gently.

“I’m not,” he said softly and she knew that he was talking about his scar.

“Yes,” she said forcefully, lifting up on her elbows. “You are. And I love you.”

Zuko smiled and kissed her again, his mouth gently sliding over hers as he lifted his hand and sank it into her hair.

“I love you too… You’re beautiful, Suki… So beautiful… Everything I want…” he said between kisses. She lost herself in the feel of him, in the warmth of his body, the way he held her, the touch of his hands…

But somewhere, beneath the lust and pleasure, and the warmth of his words, she felt a tug of uncertainty, an echo of Azula’s parting words, and not just hers. The girl at the ball had said the same thing.

_Do you really think you’re good enough for Zuko?_

She aggressively shoved the thoughts back, clinging to him.

Zuko eventually shifted to the side and she sat up and shrugged out of the shirt he’d given her, using it to wipe at the mess on her stomach. Zuko watched her, looking both chagrined and pleased. She tossed the shirt aside and curled up against him. They were quiet for a moment, listening to the storm and rain outside. Zuko’s arm tightened around her waist, his breath whispering across the back of her neck as the lightning flickered outside and the cool, rain-scented air came sweeping into the palace. Thunder rolled around them, high up in Zuko’s tower. His whole massive bed seemed to tremble beneath them, causing her to roll over and bury her face in his shoulder.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” she said, though she was still uneasy. She couldn’t get Azula’s snide little barb out of her head, no matter how hard she tried.

Zuko’s hand stroked her hair, her jaw, the shell of her ear, soothing her as the storm built around them. Unable to keep her eyes open any longer, she closed them and sank into a drowsy state of bliss, broken only by the thunder and slashed through by the brilliant pop-pop-pop of the lightning.

“Do you know when I realized that I was in love with you?” Zuko asked as she slipped her hand beneath the sheets he’d pulled over them, rubbing his hip and then the muscular round of his buttocks.

“Mmm, no,” she intoned with a sleepy smile against his warm, bare shoulder. Zuko’s hand in her hair sent little tingles spreading along her skin.

“A year and a half ago, when you had that stomach virus. I held you just like this.”

Her eyes popped open and she jerked back from him, sitting up on her hand. “ _What?_ ”

Zuko grinned at her in the dark and the sight of his smile was nearly enough to melt her shock. “You heard me.”

“I threw up for three solid days! I had a fever! I…I distinctly remember throwing up on you!” Suki exclaimed, her mouth open.

“Oh, you did. _Twice_ ,” Zuko said wryly as the thunder boomed around them. She could hear the rain now, as it lashed the roof, the winds howling as they buffeted the tower.

Sick though she’d been at the time, she remembered the incident in question well enough. Acute embarrassment tended to stick in the memory.

A stomach virus had been going around the palace for a few weeks, hitting everyone from noblemen to cooks to members of the Council. The fever had come on her during her shift, but, stubborn as always, Suki had tried to power through it instead of admitting that she was sick. She’d ended up fainting in the corridor on the way to the throne room. Zuko had caught her before she’d hit the ground though, and, according to Ty Lee, who had also been on duty at the time, he’d rushed her to Nam-Kyu himself and had paced the ward while the healer had tried to bring her temperature down.

She’d been mortified to wake up in a bed in the sickroom and even more embarrassed that Zuko had taken her there himself. Nam-Kyu had ordered her off-duty for the next week and sent her off with medicine and instructions to stay hydrated. By that point she’d been as weak as water and feeling nauseated. Zuko had insisted on carrying her back to her room and she could still remember the feel of his arms around her, and the way he’d murmured soothing words to her. All while she’d tried her best not to barf on him.

Even after he’d taken her to her room, he’d refused to leave her, hovering, sitting beside her bed, reading to her, taking off her blankets when she got too hot, putting more on when she got the chills, giving her medicine, food, water… He’d canceled all of his meetings and audiences and he’d blatantly ignored her requests that he leave her to her misery. She’d thrown up on him on the way to the bathroom, and a second time after he’d tried to feed her soup and her stomach had rebelled.

She’d counted those three days as some of her worst, even eclipsing her time at the Boiling Rock.

How on earth could he have fallen in love with her then?

“Zuko…”

“You scared me half to death when you fainted on me. You’re always so strong, so capable. You’re always taking care of me, Ty Lee… _everyone_ , and I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving you when you needed me. And…I _liked_ taking care of you, Suki. Puke and all,” he said, propping himself up on one bent arm as he pulled a wry grin. Then he grew serious. “It was on the third night. You had the chills and I couldn’t seem to get you warm again, no matter how many blankets I put on you. So I did the only thing I could think of. I climbed into bed with you, pulled you into my arms and warmed you with my Chi.”

Suki stared at him in the flickering darkness as the thunder growled around them.

“I thought I dreamt that. I thought it was the fever talking,” she whispered. The hazy memory came upon her, of Zuko’s arms around her, his body warming hers, banishing the bone-deep, teeth-chattering cold as he soothed her with soft words and even softer hands, his deliciously warm breath on her ear…

He looked chagrined now, even a little ashamed.

“I didn’t know what else to do, but that seemed to work. You stopped shivering and you rolled over and buried your face in my neck. I lay there all night. I didn’t want to move. I was afraid you’d get cold again, that you’d need me. At some point in the night it occurred to me that I _wanted_ you to need me. I knew that if Ty Lee or Katara or Aang were sick, I’d worry about them and make sure they were okay, but I wouldn’t have refused to leave their sides. I wouldn’t have ground my life to a halt and slept in an uncomfortable chair for three days and gotten puke all over my shoes for them. From that night on, I knew that I was in love with you,” Zuko said, reaching out and caressing her hip.

“That’s why things were so awkward between us for a few weeks after I got better! You wouldn’t look me in the eye!” she said, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Yeah,” he said with a little laugh. “I didn’t know how to act around you anymore. I was in love with you and you had a boyfriend.”

“You _jerk!_ I thought it was because I puked on you!” she said, smacking his shoulder.

“ _Ow!_ Hey! That’s abusive!” Zuko declared, catching her hand with a laugh.

“You deserve it, jerkbender!” she said as he wrenched her forward across his body. She straddled him, their hands grappling. They wrestled for dominance for a few seconds, until she turned her wrists and pinned his hands to the bed. Suki bent over him, her tangled hair falling around their faces. “I win.”

“Do you?” Zuko said and then he twisted in place, rolling them over so that she landed on her back, with his big body pressing her down into the mattress. “Looks like I’m on top.”

Suki grinned and lifted up, slamming a hot, rough kiss across his mouth, her post-coital sleepiness completely forgotten.

Zuko’s hands got between them and she felt his fingers press against her clit, surprising a little gasping laugh from her.

“Mmm…Zuko…”

“I want to taste you…” he mumbled, and the temperature beneath her skin rose a thousand degrees. His thumb slipped inside of her again, where everything was hot and wet. She groaned and wrapped her hands in his hair. Her earlier unease slipped away like fog in the sunlight.

“Don’t let me stop you…”

Zuko trailed his mouth down the center of her body, lingering on her breasts, his stubble prickly. She grinned as he glanced up at her, kissing her stomach, his thumb moving in and out of her slowly.

“Fire Lord Zuko! I’m sorry to wake you, but there’s an emergency!” Fen called as the doors to the bedroom popped open unexpectedly. Suki gasped as Zuko rolled off of her, yanking the sheets up over the both of them. Fen stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening, his mouth falling open.

Suki screwed up her face and pulled the sheets over her head, her knees drawing up as he face flamed.

“FEN! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!? GET OUT!”

“I’m sorry, Zuko, there’s…there’s an emergency or I wouldn’t have…”

“Stand aside, Fen,” a familiar, husky voice said from behind Zuko’s secretary, causing Suki’s eyes to widen. She felt Zuko freeze in place, the hand he’d left on her thigh tightening imperceptibly. “Zuko, we have a problem, I— Did I interrupt something?”

“Uh…” Zuko managed in shock, the woman’s dry sarcasm sting like a slap. “I…we…we were…”

The woman sighed tiredly. “Well, put some pants on. I’ve got some information you’re going to want to hear. I’ll wait in the other room.”

“Uh…”

“By the way, it’s nice to see you again, Suki.”

Suki blanched and lowered the sheet just in time watch their unexpected visitor walk away with a swirl of jet black hair and long, dark robes.

“N-nice to see you too, Mai.”


	18. Chapter 18

Zuko stared at the closed doors to his bedroom, his heart pounding from the sudden, shocking intrusion of his ex-girlfriend walking in on him having sex with Suki. His mind ran in little circles as he clutched the sheet to his crotch, his eyes wide, his tangled hair half in his face. His earlier arousal was entirely forgotten.

“Zuko?”

It was Suki, her voice breaking through his shock like a hammer through ice. He turned his gaze on her, his mouth opening and closing ridiculously. Suki was holding the sheet to her chest, her face bright red, and not just from their lovemaking. She was biting down on her lower lip in that way that he loved.

“Y-yeah?” His voice cracked a little, something that hadn’t happened since he was a teenager.

She squeezed his thigh beneath the sheet. “Maybe we should get dressed? She seemed like she had something urgent to tell you.”

He glanced down at the sheet and then the door, then back at Suki. “Yeah. Yes. _Naked._ Mai is here and I’m naked and in bed. With _you._ And that’s… Whoa.”

Suki’s brow furrowed and her mouth flattened out into a thin line. “Right. I’ll just get dressed and leave you to her then.”

There was an obvious coldness in her voice, and it rippled over him like a slap. Suki threw the sheet off and shot out of the bed, her shoulders stiff, her face a blank mask. Zuko stared after for a long moment, confused.

“What are you doing?”

She glanced at him over her shoulder. She’d been searching the floor for the shirt she’d discarded before, but had come up empty-handed. Instead, she reached for one of the robes hanging on his wardrobe door. “I didn’t bring any clothing. I’ll have to borrow this.”

“No, I mean…where are you going? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Suki mumbled as she slung on the robe and belted it. “You’d better get dressed. She’s waiting.”

“Suki…” Zuko said as he shifted to the edge of the bed. He caught her wrist and pulled her toward him, wrapping his arms around her waist. Suki didn’t touch him.

“Careful. You don’t want her to catch you again. With _me_ ,” she said with a bite in her voice that stung him. He tipped his head back, staring up at her in confusion.

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing,” she said again and he frowned.

“Are you…? Are you _jealous?_ ”

“No,” Suki pushed out of his arms and tossed him the pants he’d eagerly shucked off earlier. Feeling ill at ease now, sure that he’d done something incredibly wrong, but not sure what, he pulled his pants on and tugged his hair back from his face, tying it back. He grabbed another robe and slung it on, watching Suki out the corner of his eye. She’d gone into the bathing room and retrieved her fan and sword.

“Expecting trouble?” he asked as she strapped the belt to her waist.

“Always do,” she replied stiffly, walking toward the door. Zuko crossed the room and touched her arm, stopping her.

“Hey, look at me,” he said, putting one thumb under her chin and gently tipping her face up. Her eyes were wide and he could see the hurt in the blue depths. “Did I do something wrong?”

Suki’s mouth tightened. “Zuko…”

“Please, if I did something wrong, tell me.”

Suki opened her mouth, but a sharp knock on the door interrupted her.

“Sire?”

“Coming, Fen!” he called, irritated, as Suki stepped away from him, and opened the door. He followed her, his stomach squeezing uncomfortably. He knew he’d done something wrong, but he wasn’t sure what.

_Trust me to put my foot in it. Every fucking time._

Fen was standing uncomfortably in the parlor of his suite, his usual stack of papers in his hands, with lists of things the Fire Lord had to attend to and important bits of information that he needed to know. Mai was pacing the floor a few feet away, her arms crossed over her chest, her mouth a thin, worried line in her pale face. He’d been too distracted before to notice the fact that she was soaked to the skin, her oil-black hair dripping onto the carpet with every step.

Zuko took her in, his gaze sliding past the familiar lines of her face, to the narrow indentation of her waist. She seemed thinner than he remembered, more worn, tired, stressed. Not surprising, given that she’d been embedded with a terrorist group for the past two years, and by all accounts, had been working tirelessly to take them down. Azula and Sokka had looked like that too.

Guilt stabbed at him. How many people had suffered just to protect him?

As he stared at her, he didn’t know what he was supposed to say or do. He’d once been in love with the woman before him…and she’d broken his heart in more ways than one. How was he supposed to feel, seeing her again? How was one supposed to act or feel around a person they’d once thought to share their life with?

He didn’t know.

Examining his thoughts, he realized that he mostly just felt relieved. He hadn’t realized how worried he’d been for Mai the past few days. Knowing that she was all alone in the den of his enemies had been nagging at the back of his mind since Sokka and Azula had spun their tale for him. He’d tried not to think about all of the things that could go wrong, about how much she was in danger, but he had.

Seeing her alive–worn and wet and thin–but still _alive_ , was definitely a weight off of his chest.

Mai turned her dark eyes on him as he stopped, tightening the belt on his robe.

“Um…nice to see you, Mai. A little unexpected.”

“You too, Zuko. Sorry, I walked in on…. _Anyway_ , I would have sent word, but I didn’t trust any couriers and frankly, this couldn’t wait,” she said, the hard line of her mouth softening for a moment, before she squared her shoulders, took a deep breath.

Suki said, in a falsely casual voice, “How did you get into the palace? We’re on lockdown and I have guards on the door.”

The corners of Mai’s lips curled up a little as she turned to Suki, her gaze clocking Suki’s tangled hair and a love-bite turning purple on her neck. Her lips pursed a little. “Give me some credit, Captain. I know this palace as well as any guard, including how to get in and out without being seen. And don’t worry, your girls are still…uh…on the door.”

“How did you get past them?” Zuko asked, brow furrowing.

“Well…” Mai said guiltily, as Fen walked to the front door and swung it open to reveal both Kikki and Tam on the other side, slumped in place, two daggers each pinning their clothing to the wood. Both of them were out cold.

He heard Suki gasp beside him and she rushed over to wrench the daggers out of the door. Zuko followed her, grabbing Tam and helping her down. Both women were as limp as ragdolls, and he noticed a feathered dart in both of their thighs. He pulled the one in Tam’s thigh out and examined it.

“Shirshu dart, with a knockout drug kick, courtesy of June,” Mai said shortly as he looked up at her in disbelief. “They’ll be up and about within the hour. I didn’t _want_ to dart them, but they looked like they were going to put up a fight and I didn’t have time to explain.”

“Dammit, Mai…” Zuko said, starting to heft Tam up in his arms, but Mai stopped him.

“Leave all of them in the hall. You and I need to talk without anyone eavesdropping.”

Zuko narrowed his eyes. “I trust the Kyoshi Warriors. _All_ of them.”

He glanced up at Mai’s face and saw her arch a brow at him. “I hope you trust me too, Zuko.”

He looked at Suki, who met his gaze for a long moment. She looked angry, but he couldn’t tell if it was at Mai or at him.

“Fine. Fen?”

“Yes, sire?”

“Stay out here with the girls. Notify me immediately if anyone comes up those stairs. Do you understand? And send a servant to Suki’s room. She needs a change of clothing,” he commanded. Fen nodded, as Zuko climbed to his feet. He held out his hand and offered it to Suki, who ignored it. She took to her feet and followed Mai as she walked back into the suite, leaving Zuko to rush after them, past Fen, who crouched on the floor over the paralyzed and unconscious guards.

“I meant you too,” Mai said to Suki as soon as Zuko closed the door.

“If you think for one moment I’m going to let Zuko be in a room alone with you, then you have another thing coming,” Suki said softly, her hand straying to her fan.

Mai’s jaw tightened as she looked Suki up and down. “Insecurity doesn’t look good on you, Suki. Neither does jealousy.”

Suki ignored the pointed remarks, and stepped closer to Mai. “You sneaked into the palace, attacked my girls and now you want to get Zuko alone? All after spending two years getting chummy with Zuko’s enemies? I don’t trust you. It’s my job not to trust you. I’m _not_ leaving.”

Mai tilted her head back a little and then a touch of a smile came to her lips. “Good point.”

“I want her here, Mai. I trust Suki with my life. Anything you plan to say to me, you can say to her. I don’t keep secrets from her,” he spoke up, as the tension between the two women mounted. His stomach twisted, watching the two of them glaring at each other.

He was surprised at the sudden enmity between them; Suki and Mai had always gotten along very well. He had no doubt what was bothering the two of them though.

 _Can my life just not be complicated, for five fucking minutes? It’s all I ask_.

Mai glanced at him and then her lips pursed. “Fine. Whatever. If you don’t like what I have to say, that’s on you.”

Zuko sat down on the arm of a chair, while Suki lingered beside him protectively. He wanted to tell her to stand down, that he trusted Mai, but after seeing Kikki and Tam, he wasn’t so sure of that any longer. “What’s the emergency, Mai?” he asked her as she sank down into a seat opposite him. She looked exhausted, or maybe she was just cold in her wet clothing. It was still raining buckets outside.

“Where are Sokka and Azula?”

Zuko lifted a brow at her bluntness. “Gone. Sokka was injured, so I sent them away, along with my uncle. I don’t know where, but I can only assume they’re smart enough to find somewhere safe while he heals.”

Something in Mai visibly relaxed. “And the agent in the palace? Did Sokka’s little stunt flush them out? I know the assassination attempt went as planned—the rumors are all over the city—but I haven’t heard anything about the operative responsible.”

Zuko snorted. “I’m surprised the rumors aren’t out yet. Osamu, one of my Councilors, was the agent, though we think he was working with someone else.”

“A woman,” Mai stated flatly.

Suki’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve spent the last two years systematically picking apart the Smoke Demons. With June’s help, I’ve identified over a hundred members of the group. Some I’ve personally had contact with, others I never would have found if not for June’s shirshu’s sense of smell. These are top people, connected people. Not just in the Fire Nation, but in the Earth Kingdom as well.”

“Why haven’t you taken them down yet?”

“Because if enough of them go down, the rest will disappear. They know how. They’d close ranks. I might never find the leaders of this thing if I start putting daggers in backs willy-nilly. And frankly, I’m outnumbered and in some cases, outmatched. I have to lob off the head before I take down the rest.”

“You think there’s more than one leader?” Suki asked.

“Yes. I think I’m close to discovering who they are, too. I obtained a critical piece of information last week when I overheard one of the Smoke Demons—someone very high up—say something about ‘making the brothers angry’ if the assassination attempt failed.”

He sat back in his chair. “Brothers?”

“Yes. I’m not sure who they are yet, but I’m close. I might have found out who they were before this, but June was sent on assignment in the Earth Kingdom, and she took her shirshu with her. I’m meeting a contact tonight who might have information that could uncover the leaders. I hope so anyway. I think they’re starting to lose their trust in me and I don’t know how much longer I can keep up the charade. I risked a lot coming here tonight, but the information I had needed to get to you and I didn’t trust any other form of communication.”

“And what do the Smoke Demons think you’re doing right now?” he asked.

“I’m supposedly collecting information on the whereabouts of ‘Tazeo’ and Azula. From what I understand, the female agent was supposed to silence them if the attempt on your life failed. But you’re telling me that Osamu attacked them?”

“Yeah,” Zuko said, leaning forward, his elbows on his thighs. “Sokka said that Osamu seemed agitated that _he_ had to do it. Like that hadn’t been the plan.”

Mai nodded. “I don’t think it was. I don’t think the Smoke Demons would risk exposing Osamu as an agent if they didn’t have any other choice. I didn’t know his identity before this, but I heard talk of someone high up in the palace, keeping an eye on you and manipulating things behind the scenes. He’s been reporting to the Smoke Demons for years now. Since the very beginning. They know every move you make, the guard’s schedules, the layout of the palace. I’d even be willing to bet Osamu told them to recruit me. He witnessed enough of our fights. He must have thought I hated you.”

“I thought that a time or two, myself,” Zuko said, smirking a little. Mai rolled her eyes. “So answer me this: if Osamu was an agent the whole time, why didn’t he try to assassinate me before this? He’s had a million opportunities!”

“In case it went wrong, I’d guess. If he’d attempted to kill you and failed, the Smoke Demons’ best source of information would have dried up instantly. They couldn’t risk losing him.”

“And Osamu’s not exactly a trained assassin,” Suki spoke up. “He wasted a bunch of arrows and only managed to get one in Sokka’s thigh.”

“But he got Ty Lee square in the back,” Zuko pointed out, feeling his stomach twist as he thought of Ty Lee’s tiny body, her blood drenching him as the arrow protruded from her chest. She had to be okay; he knew that Nam-Kyu would have sent word to him if she wasn’t.

“I think that was luck more than skill, to be honest,” Suki said quietly.

Mai went very still at the mention of Ty Lee. “What happened to Ty Lee?”

Zuko and Suki glanced at one another. “She went down into the dungeon with a crossbow. She was angry with Azula for trying to assassinate me. Azula didn’t think she was going to pull the trigger, she was just angry. Osamu surprised them and shot her in the back with another crossbow, before attacking Sokka and Azula. Suki and I arrived just in time to take him down, and Azula burned his face pretty badly and he wasn’t fit to interrogate yesterday. Ty Lee’s in the healing ward. She nearly didn’t make it. I’m planning on checking on her before I do anything else today.”

“But she’s alive?”

“Last we heard. Nam-Kyu kicked us out of the ward last night and wouldn’t let us see her, but yeah. I think she’s alright.”

Mai was staring at her hands, her face crumpled with worry. “She can’t have been the one… Not Ty Lee…”

“What do you mean?” Suki asked carefully. Mai’s head came up and there was worry etched across her features.

“If Osamu’s been caught, then there’s still at least one agent in the palace. A female.”

“You can’t think it was Ty Lee. She denied knowing about the Smoke Demons,” Suki said, cutting her hand through the air dismissively. “Ty Lee would _never_ betray Zuko.”

“Right, but if it wasn’t Ty Lee, then there’s still another female agent in the palace.”

Zuko stroked his stubbled chin. “And that begs the question, why wasn’t _she_ the one to make the attempt on Sokka and Azula?”

“That I’m afraid I don’t know,” Mai said heavily. “But what I _do_ know is that someone in the palace reported seeing Tazeo and Azula being loaded into the Royal airship.”

“Do you know who reported it?” Suki said sharply.

Mai shrugged. “I have a couple of theories…but not enough evidence to say who I think it is with any confidence. Who witnessed them leaving?”

Suki answered immediately. “Zuko, me, the healers. A few guardsmen. The other Kyoshi Warriors.”

Mai made a noise and glanced at the door. “That’s what I thought.”

“Excuse me?” Suki said sharply, her whole body going rigid with rage. “First me, then Ty Lee, and now the other Kyoshi Warriors? What exactly are insinuating, Mai?”

Mai reached into her damp sleeve and pulled out a crumbled piece of paper. She smoothed it out with meticulous precision. “I got this letter off of a courier who was being sent from one of the Smoke Demons I’d reckon is right at the top of the food chain. The letter, like all of the letters I’ve managed to intercept, is just vague enough to be frustrating, but…”

“What does it say?” Suki said carefully, her voice soft, though it carried a warning.

“You won’t like it.”

“Read it, Mai.”

 Mai glanced at him and then down at the letter. “‘ _Send a warning to the K.W. operative._ _Remind her that we have her mother and that we will do as we’ve threatened should our orders not be carried out immediately. Whore must be eliminated. Await further instructions.”_

“K.W.? What’s that mean?” Zuko asked, though he already knew.

“Kyoshi Warrior,” Mai said firmly.

“ _No.”_ Suki’s voice was harsh, a snapping bite into the silence the followed Mai’s statement. “NO!”

“Suki…” Zuko started, reaching for her hand, but she pulled away from him.

“ _None_ of my girls would turn traitor. Ty Lee thought Azula had turned traitor and it angered her into attempted murder. My girls have all risked their lives protecting Zuko. They’ve been with him every day for _years._ If they’d wanted to hurt him, they’ve all had their chance and then some. The Smoke Demons sent two assassins after Zuko! Why bring in an outsider if one of the Warriors could just stab him in his sleep?” Suki said, reaching over and snatching the letter out of Mai’s hands. She scanned it, her face going red.

“K.W. could mean anything,” Zuko said soothingly, but she ignored him.

“ _’Whore must be eliminated.’_ ” Suki’s face went an even darker red at that and she looked at Zuko, who stood, understanding suddenly roaring through him. “They mean me, don’t they? I’m the whore.”

“You’re not a whore,” he said hotly, reaching for her, but she sidled away from his touch. Her whole body vibrated with anger.

“Not according to all the rumors about us that have been thrown in my face the past couple of weeks,” Suki said bitterly.

“That’s why I didn’t think you were the female agent, actually. I knew that letter was referring to you.”

“ _Mai!_ ” Zuko shot at her, mouth opening at her insinuation.

Mai’s face flushed and she looked slightly embarrassed. “I didn’t mean it _that_ way. I just meant… That’s how the other Smoke Demons refer to you, Suki. There have been rumors about the two of you for months. They know you’re close, that you’re his chief bodyguard, that you attend Council meetings with him, that you two train together. I assume Osamu has been reporting every little detail about the two of you. Since you stopped the first assassin from killing Zuko, there have been mutterings about taking you out. I was hoping it wouldn’t be a problem, but clearly since Tazeo and Azula’s attempt on Zuko’s life failed, their next step is to get at him through you.”

“Over my cold, dead body,” Zuko snapped. “If someone wants to hurt Suki, they _will_ have to go through me first.”

Suki rounded on him, her jaw set. “Don’t you fucking _dare_ , Zuko! That is exactly what they want. Osamu’s probably already told them that you wouldn’t leave when that first assassin attacked us on the balcony. They know you’d fight at my side, that I’m a weakness for you. They’re counting on that!”

“If you think I’m just going to stand by while some assassin attempts to kill you just get to me—“ he started, stepping up close to her. He grabbed her upper arms. “You mean too damned much to me, Suki. If someone comes after you, you can damned well be sure I’ll be there to stop them.”

“I can handle myself. I’m your bodyguard. It’s my job. Let me do it!”

Zuko studied her face for a long moment, seeing the stubbornness and strength of her written into over elegant curve, every deadly muscle. She was capable, smart, tough. Deadly. He’d seen her take down men twice her size, without breaking a sweat. She was beautiful and dangerous and he loved her. The very thought of her in danger because of him was more than he could bear.

_Being with me is going to get her killed._

He looked into her eyes and shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Then you don’t respect me _or_ my position,” Suki said softly, her voice full of hurt.

“I do…you _know_ I do. There’s no one else I’d want to watch my back, but if something happened to you, it would _kill me_. Suki, if the Smoke Demons killed you, they might as well kill me too. I’d chase them across the world and I’d burn us all to the ground in revenge.”

“Zuko…”

Silence fell between them as they stared at each other for a long, tension-filled moment.

“Wow, that’s dramatic,” Mai piped up, her sardonic voice cutting through the silence. Zuko started and glanced at her. He’d totally forgotten that they had an audience. “If you two could stow the melodrama for a minute, we still have to figure out who the agent is.”

Suki searched his face and then turned back to the letter in her hands. “It says here that they have her mother. That could mean that they’re blackmailing her into working for them. If… _if_ it _is_ one of my girls, she might not be a willing traitor.”

Zuko breathed a sigh of relief. The Kyoshi Warriors were his friends, as well as his bodyguards. He was obviously closer to Suki, and Ty Lee, but he got along well with all of the other women too. It was hard not to be on friendly terms with them, when they shadowed him every day. Each of them had pledged to protect him with their lives, and he hadn’t taken that pledge lightly. The Kyoshi Warriors were people he cared about. He wouldn’t allow one of his people to be threatened.

“That’s why I brought the letter to you…and why I couldn’t let Kikki and Tam hear what I had to say,” Mai said. “I’ve hired someone to investigate the families of all of the Kyoshi Warriors, including yours, Suki. If any of them have a mother that’s missing… Well…”

“Then we’ll confront her,” Suki said, taking a deep breath. She looked ill. “We’ll reason with her. I know my girls. They wouldn’t turn unless threatened. None of them have done anything to indicate that they’re not on Zuko’s side. Not so far.”

“It seems to me that she refused to assassinate Azula and Sokka, and that’s why Osamu had to do it. And that’s why they’re reminding her of the power they have over her. Whoever she is, she’s trying not to play their game. She’s trying to stay loyal,” he said, feeling a touch of pride, despite the circumstances.

“Maybe, but watch your back, anyway,” Mai said, drawing out another letter. She handed it to Zuko. “Here’s a list of known agents, including the agents in your army. I don’t know if that’s all of them, but it should help.”

Surprised, Zuko took the letter and scanned it. He recognized a few of the names, including the Mayor of the capitol, a slimy weasel of a man named Yukishima. He’d always disliked the man, so the idea of bringing him down pleased him inordinately. “I sent a courier to General Mak three days ago, but he hasn’t responded yet.”

Mai nodded. “As far as I can tell, Mak is clean.”

Zuko let out another sigh of relief. “That’s actually load off of my mind. I’ll pass this along to him then. Mai, I…”

“You don’t have to thank me,” she said, cutting him off by holding up one gloved hand.

“Yes, I do. You’ve risked a lot taking these people down. You didn’t have to.”

“Yes, I did,” Mai said and their gazes met. Something passed between them in that moment. Understanding, regret, respect, care, and the faintest echo of how she’d once made his heart stir. He let it all pass over him, through him, and around him, as he smiled at her.

No, he wasn’t in love with her anymore. That time had passed, and he realized, in that moment, that it had passed for Mai too. She’d been right when she’d broken up with him. It had been the best thing for the both of them. There was sadness there too. He’d missed her more than he’d realized.

“I want to thank you too, Mai.”

Mai turned her gaze on Suki. She looked her up and down for a moment. “You’re welcome, Suki.” There was something stiffer in Mai’s posture and voice as she spoke though and the tension between the two was almost palpable. Mai stood and smoothed her hand down the front of her wet clothes.

“Are you leaving?”

“I should, before anyone else sees me. I darted the girls before they spotted me, but Fen was walking up as I approached your door and I didn’t have any more darts. I didn’t want to hurt him.”

“Thank you. Fen’s pretty delicate. He broke a nail the other day and I thought he was going to cry,” Zuko said ruefully.

“Please tell Fen not to mention that I was here. And tell Ty Lee I hope she gets back on her feet soon.”

“You should stop in and see her. I’m heading down there myself as soon as possible,” Suki said. Mai shook her head.

“I can’t. I might be seen…” Mai said regretfully. “Please make sure she’s alright though.”

“Of course. And you…you be careful, too,” Zuko said seriously. Their gazes met again and he saw something in Mai soften a bit.

“I will. Suki, take care of him for me.”

“You told me that once before, remember? The last time you left him,” Suki said lightly. Zuko tensed, expecting an explosion between the two of them.

The corners of Mai’s lips quirked a little. “I didn’t realize you’d take it so seriously. Do you love him?”

Zuko’s eyes popped at the bluntness of her question, but Suki seemed unfazed by it. “Yes.”

Mai looked from him to Suki and then smiled, the expression odd in her wan face. “Then June owes me twenty Yuans. I called it.”

“You, Sokka and the rest of the country. Zuko and I were the last to know, it seems,” Suki said wryly.

Mai shook her head. “Just watch his back. He’s an idiot, you know.”

“I know,” Suki sighed.

“Hey! I’m standing right here!” Zuko interjected, though he was relieved that the tension between the two women had eased. Suki and Mai smiled at each other and then Mai surprised him by quickly hugging her, then him.

“Don’t die, asshole,” Mai said in his ear.

“You either,” he said softly, touching her back briefly.

“That’s not the plan.”

“It never is,” he said gravely as she pulled away from him and started toward the door. “Keep in touch, okay?”

Mai glanced at him and then at Suki. “You’ll be seeing me again. Probably soon. Don’t forget what I told you.”

He nodded and then, all of a sudden, Mai was gone, the door closing behind her. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He glanced down at the list in his hands.

“There are so many names here… Even Yukishima is on here. Suki, this is _big_. Mai’s risked so much. I… I can’t believe it.” He looked up at her and saw Suki staring at the floor, tears running down her cheeks. “Suki? Are you okay?”

“No,” she said softly, sinking into a chair. He followed her, crouching down in front of her. He took her hand and folded it into his, staring at her with wide eyes. She let out a ragged sob and then looked up at him. “If what Mai says is true… Zuko, we can’t trust the other Kyoshi Warriors. I can’t trust my friends, my _sisters._ That was the _one thing_ I was sure of and these bastards took them from me.”

“Hey, no…” he said, wiping her tears away. “Shhh… Whoever she is, she hasn’t turned yet. They’re terrorizing her. We’ll find out who it is. We’ll question Osamu all day and all night. I won’t let the Smoke Demons take any more of my friends. I promise you, we’ll find her and help her.”

He pulled her into his arms and she buried her face against his neck as he held her. Her sobs stopped quickly though and she pulled back.

“I was being a bitch to Mai. I’m sorry. It was petty of me,” she said, sniffing. “She’s done a lot to help you and I repaid her by acting like a jealous, insecure ass. She was right.”

“It’s okay… It was a weird situation, what with her walking in on us and all.”

“I didn’t handle it well,” she said, shame in her voice.

“I’m not sure there _is_ a way to handle that kind of situation well, to be honest. Look, if I said or did anything to make you think that I… Well…” His face flamed a little. “I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I just… I don’t have feelings for her anymore. I need you to know that. I was just shocked to see her and if I made you feel otherwise, then I apologize too. I love you.”

He smoothed her tangled hair back from her face and kissed her tear-streaked cheeks. Suki slid her arms around his neck as he fit in between her knees, his arms going around her tightly. Her nose nuzzled his, as he moved his mouth to hers.

Her kiss was dry and warm, tasting of tears and sleep and he allowed himself to sink into the hot bliss of her for one long moment. His whole body seemed to awaken from its shocked state and he felt the stirring of arousal in his spine. Suki moaned and slanted her mouth across his with heated avarice. The whole night and morning flooded back over him with a wash of erotic promise.

A curt knock on the door made him groan and break the kiss.

“ _Mother_ fucking…” he started as the door opened a tiny crack.

“Sire?” It was Fen, his head peeking around the door.

“ _WHAT?!”_ he snarled uncharitably.

“The ladies are waking now, and I have a change of clothing for the Captain,” Fen said, glancing at the two of them as he stepped inside, a bundle of green clothing in his arms. “Is everything okay, sire? Mai left in a hurry.”

“Of course. Mai was just in the neighborhood and thought she’d stop by for a visit,” he said, falsely cheerful. “Since we’re on lockdown she broke in and darted the girls. You know how Mai is. Please don’t mention that you saw her, Fen. I don’t want anyone to think my security is lacking.”

Fen’s plucked eyebrows rose a little at that. “Yes, sire. Of course. I’ll keep it to myself. Is there anything else you need?”

“Cancel all of my appointments for today. I’m not seeing anyone. The Captain and I don’t wish to be disturbed.”

Fen nodded and then glanced at Suki in her disheveled state, still clasped in his arms as he kneeled on the floor in front of her. His lips pursed as he put Suki’s clothing down on the table. “I’ll just go check on the girls then, shall I?”

Fen left the suite with an obvious air of disapproval. The door closed behind him.

“Why did you tell him that?” she asked as he stood.

“Because first we’re going to check on Ty Lee and then we’re going to interrogate Osamu and I don’t want anyone to know where we’re going. Osamu knows who the female agent is. He might even know who the brothers are. We’re going to make him spill every little secret he’s ever tried to keep. By the time I’m done with him, he’s going to wish Azula had killed him.”

Suki smiled and took to her feet. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s make this bastard sing.”


	19. Chapter 19

“What happened to us?” Kikki demanded, rubbing her temple. The slightest of the Kyoshi Warriors, she looked like a livid little cat, indignant about finding herself lying in the corridor outside of Zuko’s suite, her limbs unresponsive as Mai’s dart slowly wore off. “Why were we on the floor?”

The plan had been to sneak into the healing ward, but after they realized that Kikki and Tam would be wondering what had happened to them—and Zuko really couldn’t blame them—they’d pulled the two Warriors into the suite to explain.

Except they couldn’t explain. Not now that they knew one of the Kyoshi Warriors had turned.

Suki, who had changed into the clothing Fen had brought her, held up a quelling hand. “I wish I could tell you, because I know that if I were you I’d want answers, but right now you have to trust us.”

Tam opened her mouth to say something and then snapped it closed. She seemed to study the two of them for a long moment. “Captain, if this has something to do with the Fire Lord’s security, I think we have a right to know.”

Zuko studied the two women, women he had long counted as friends, totally trustworthy and unflagging in their loyalty. He resented that he now had cause to doubt them. He found himself analyzing everything they said, trying to find fault with it. Was Tam pushing for information because she was genuinely worried about his safety, or because she was reporting to the Smoke Demons? Was Kikki really indignant, or was it an act?

He hated second-guessing them, hated that the Smoke Demons had blackmailed one of his trusted friends. The fact that she—whomever she was—had not attacked him yet, when they had all had ample opportunity did little to allay his anger.

“It doesn’t. I can’t explain any further, not without putting Zuko in danger. If you truly care about his safety, you’ll keep this between yourselves and you’ll stop asking questions,” Suki said in a tone that demanded obedience.

He’d rarely ever seen her take such a harsh tone with the other Kyoshi Warriors; Suki was a good leader who could command without cruelty, who gained loyalty through patience, understanding and a certain efficient competency. She almost never snapped at anyone.

He wanted to touch her, but he refrained. He knew why she had snapped at them. If it hurt him to think of one of the Warriors turning on him, no matter the reason behind it, he knew that it hurt Suki even more. She wasn’t just feeling betrayed. She was heartbroken.

“Captain—” Tam started, looking both cowed and startled at Suki’s tone.

“Do you care about Zuko’s safety? Are you both loyal?” Suki stepped forward, her hands clasped behind her back as she challenged them.

It was Kikki who answered, bristling again like she was going to arch her back and hiss at the insinuation. “Of course we are!”

“Then get your asses back out on that door and do your damned jobs. MOVE!” Suki snarled and the two of them scrambled back out the door, looking wounded and bewildered.

He’d never seen Suki so worked up, and as she turned to face him, he could see the pain in her gaze.

She hadn’t enjoyed yelling at them. Not the way she’d enjoyed snarking at Mai earlier.

“You okay?”

“No,” she said shortly, wiping a hand down her bare face. Without her paint, she looked unusually vulnerable, and it took all of his effort not to wrap her up in his arms. He knew if he did that, they wouldn’t be leaving the suite any time soon.

 _Besides_ _you’ve got a lot more pressing matters than your libido right now,_ he scolded himself, glancing at the closed door.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. I just wish I could tell them what happened. I don’t like keeping things from them,” she said, meeting his gaze for a moment. Then she sighed. “You ready?”

He nodded and together they walked into his bedroom, and then into the secret tunnel that lead into the tunnels. They’d have to be careful that no one spotted them coming out of the tunnel again, but it was easier to sneak around the palace if everyone on his staff thought he was holed up in his suite.

Well, holed up in his suite with _Suki._

It was amazing how very little he cared about how the fact that she’d spent the night in his suite was probably being whispered about throughout the palace. Before, when they had been nothing but rumors, it had bothered him. Suki’s honor had been at stake, after all. She had been with Sokka.

But now…

 _Now…_ He thought as she glanced back at him as they descended the twisty, cobwebby stairs, her eyes shining in the light cast by the fire flickering above his hand. _Now she’s mine._

The thought was selfish and greedy and he let himself wallow in it before pushing it aside with reluctance. What was happening between them would have to wait until his enemies were ashes.

They made their way out of the stable and across the yard. The rainstorm was still raging, with a misty fog slowly creeping across the grounds. Ducking in out of the rain, they came back through the palace to the healing ward without being spotted, although they had more than a few close calls with patrolling guardsmen. Still, the lack of security was starting to bother him. It seemed easier than it should have been to sneak around his own palace.

Suki obviously felt the same way after they ducked into an alcove and two guardsmen walked right past them without noticing them.

“Incompetent,” she mumbled as he took her hand and lead her toward the healing ward. He really had to agree. When this was all over, he was firing every single one of them.

* * *

Suki’s anger redoubled the moment they entered the ward, and she spotted Aiko’s familiar figure standing guard against one of the doors. Xuiying, if she remembered the rotation correctly, was guarding Osamu’s room, somewhere beyond the door at Aiko’s back.

Bitterness welled in her. She’d set them the task of guarding Zuko’s traitorous Councilman, thinking she could trust them. Now she wasn’t so sure.

_They’ve stolen that from me. I may as well have tossed Osamu to the reindeer-dogs. The only person I can trust right now is Zuko._

That thought made her more than a little sad. Aiko saw them and drew herself up, nodding at Suki as if to wordlessly report that she had everything under control. Suki’s lips twisted, and she nearly started for her when a slight, stooped figure came out of a hallway to their right.

“Oh, there you are. I was about to send a messenger to fetch you,” Nam-Kyu said in her rusty voice. She put her hands on her bony hips, lips twisted into what Suki could only interpret as an amused smile, though sometimes it was hard to tell with Nam-Kyu.

The healer looked rested, her hair pulled back from her wrinkled face with an almost painful tightness. Her mouth was pinched as she glanced between Suki and Zuko, framed in the doorway of the ward.

“Is it Ty Lee? Did something happen? Is she alright?” Suki started, but the healer held up a quelling hand.

“She’s fine. In fact, she’s awake and ready for a short visit, if you’d like to speak to her,” she said, gesturing to the door she’d just exited.

Suki glanced back at Aiko. They should be interviewing Osamu right now. They’d already wasted so much time, waiting for the shock from his injuries to wear off. They needed answers, and she knew that Osamu had them.

“We’d love to see her,” Zuko was saying, making the decision for the both of them. She didn’t mind. She needed to see Ty Lee too, and besides, neither Aiko or Xuiying had done anything yet. She wanted to believe that they wouldn’t. That none of them would.

“Is she really okay?” Suki asked.

Nam-Kyu lead the way through the door, and into a long hallway filled with doors leading into mostly empty rooms. She glimpsed a few patients as they passed; a guardsman with a broken leg up in traction, one of the maids, whom, she remembered, had broken her back taking a tumble down the stairs, and a groomsman whose throat had nearly been bitten out by an untamed mongoose lizard in the stables. Otherwise the ward was empty.

“She’s stable and responding well to the surgery. I’ve got her hooked up to the bellows to making sure she’s breathing properly and we’ve been checking her vitals to make sure her blood pressure stays up. So far everything looks normal. We’ve got a healing fire burning, and she’s drugged, for the pain. She might be a little out of it, but I think she’s earned the right, don’t you?”

“And we won’t be disturbing her?” She pressed, feeling more than slightly worried. She disliked the sterile smell of the ward, and the quiet hush that pervaded the halls. There was something so creepy about this place.

“She’s been asking for you since she woke up an hour ago. I think it will do her some good to see you, for at least a few minutes,” Nam-Kyu said as she stopped in front of a door with Ty Lee’s name written on it. “Try not to get her excited though. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Thank you, Nam-Kyu,” Suki said earnestly.

Nam-Kyu nodded, and then her gaze flicked to Suki’s neck, her lips twisting with amusement again. She looked Suki square in the eyes and then turned her head and pointedly said to Zuko, “Nice hickey. You should probably put some ice on that.”

Suki squeaked and slapped her hand over a small red mark on her neck that was slowly turning purple. In all the excitement, she hadn’t noticed it before. A flash of mortification, but also of heat at the memory of how she might have gotten it, went through her.

“I…” Zuko started, flushing bright red.

But the old woman was already walking away, leaving them standing there like a couple of idiots. She disappeared through one of the patient’s doors as Zuko scrubbed his hand over his face.

“I…um…I didn’t realize I did that,” he mumbled to her as she lowered her hand.

“Me neither.”

“Sorry.”

Suki lifted herself up on tiptoe, landing a soft, brief kiss to his lips. When she slid away, she was smiling. “Maybe when this is all over, you can do it again?”

He let out a low sound of want, one that made desire swirl to her toes. Despite the gravity of the situation, she couldn’t help the way he made her feel. Zuko was quickly becoming a drug she was craving like a madwoman.

“I’d like that,” he said as she flashed him a grin that faded as she popped open the door, the scent of a healing fire rushing across her senses with a familiar twist.

Suki stepped into the room, her hand straying to the dagger and the fan at her waist. She surveyed the room and then stepped inside, allowing Zuko to enter.

The room was quiet, save the whoosh of the bellows pumping air into a rubber tube attached to Ty Lee’s upper lip, and the gentle crackle of a healing fire in a brazier near the bed. The scent of spices and astringents filled the air and the fire tossed twisty shadows across the sterile little room.

Something in Suki crumbled at the sight of the strong, vibrant young acrobat looking so limp and helpless in the bed. She swallowed, feeling light-headed all of a sudden. Her anger at the other Warriors seemed nothing compared to her anger at Osamu and his lucky arrow. He might have killed Ty Lee.

From the looks of it, he may as well have. Her hair was fanned out on the pillow, the brown strands ragged looking against the waxen pallor of her face. A blanket was wrapped around her, exposing only the top of her robe. They could see white bandages peaking out of the gap of her robe, stained a light pink. Her hands were still on the blanket as her chest slowly rose and fell with each pump of the bellows.

She looked so fragile.

Suki shut the door gently before taking hold of Zuko’s hand. The look on his face was equally as stunned. He looked very pale as he watched the bellows pump oxygen into her.

“She looks…so small…” he finally whispered. He glanced away from Ty Lee and caught her gaze. Worry had furrowed into his brow and his eyes seemed huge in the flickering light of the healing fire.

“She is small,” Suki agreed, a ghost of a smile crossing her lips for a split second, before drifting away like fog. “It’s her personality that makes her seem bigger than what she is.”

She squeezed his hand and gently propelled him toward the bed where Ty Lee lay so still. Careful not to touch anything, she stood on her left, and Zuko on her right. Suki hesitated and then touched Ty Lee’s face gently, pushing a strand of hair off of her cheek.

Zuko took her limp hand in his and gently brought it up to his mouth, kissing her knuckles with studied care, so as not to jostle her.

A few moments later though, Ty Lee inhaled with a labored gasp and her hazel eyes fluttered open, pinning them with a tired gaze just this side of awake.

“Hey,” Ty Lee slurred, and grin broke out over her face. “I know you.”

“Yeah, you do,” Zuko said, glancing up at Suki, who had taken Ty Lee’s other hand. “Suki’s here too.”

“Cap'n…m'not fit for duty yet,” she said, her smile fading into a pain-filled grimace as she shifted in place. “Think I got hurt real bad.”

“You did, sweetie, but Nam-Kyu patched you up. A few weeks of bed rest and you’ll be right as rain. And I expect you back on duty as soon as you’re able.”

Ty Lee nodded tiredly and then turned back to Zuko, blinking sleepily against the medication in her system. “Where’s Azula? She okay?”

He pressed his lips together and held her hand with both of his as he bent over the bed. “She’s fine. Thanks to you.”

“No, no thanks t'me,” she said in her punchy voice. “Was gonna hurt her. Thought she betrayed you. Was mad.”

“You would never have hurt her and she knew it,” Zuko said softly as tears leaked out the corners of Ty Lee’s eyes. Suki felt her heart aching.

“She thought I was an assassin. A demon? And Sokka… Suki, Sokka was there!” she slurred, glancing at her. “He had tattoos. Tha’s weird.”

“I know. He’s okay too. Osamu’s the one who shot you,” she said, wondering how much Ty Lee remembered.

“Jerk,” she said in reply and then giggled a little. “Why’d he shoot me?”

Zuko laughed a little and kissed her fingers again. “It doesn’t matter right now. You just concentrate on getting better, okay? And guess what? Mai was here. She couldn’t come see you, but she told me to tell you hello.”

“Mai was here? You’re not with her again, are you? ‘Cause m'pretty sure you’re in love with Suki but shhh…don’t tell her I said this, but I think she’s in love with you too,” she said in a loud whisper. Zuko glanced up at Suki, who was fighting back a smile, her eyes shining.

“You’re right, I am in love with her.”

She was never going to get tired of hearing him say that. Their gazes met and she felt her chest tighten with emotion.

“Good, cause Sokka was kissing Azula and I don’t know what tha’s about,” she said, settling back against the pillow again, the sound of the machine filling the air with it’s _pump-whoosh, pump-whoosh_ noise.

“I don’t think they do either,” was Suki’s reply, and she was surprised at the how much it still hurt, even after everything that had happened between her and Zuko. But she wasn’t angry. Maybe she never had been.

“I loved her,” Ty Lee said tremulously. Suki’s throat seemed to tighten up with restrained emotion. _Oh, Ty Lee…_

Zuko’s eyes widened and he looked up, catching Suki’s gaze for a long moment. Then he cleared his throat and patted Ty Lee’s hands. “I know you did.”

“She never loved me. M'stupid. I was never good enough for her.”

Ty Lee’s words hit Suki like a hammer blow to the heart and she stiffened, feeling the words echo through her. She looked at Zuko and then away, feeling tears prickle her eyes that she refused to shed.

Refused to think about the words that had, somehow, lodged in her head.

She was good enough for him. She _was._

“You’re not stupid,” Zuko was saying with a smile.

“Yeah, I am. And I messed up. Let my feelings get in the way of my duty,” she said, closing her eyes tightly. That seemed to finish the job the drugs had started, because her body slowly relaxed into the bed, her breathing even as she mumbled, “I wanted to hurt her. Like she hurt me. Was confused.”

“Shhh…don’t worry about it, Ty Lee. Love is really confusing sometimes, alright? Sometimes it’s really inconvenient and painful, but it’s never stupid,” Suki said softly as Zuko gently laid her hands back on the bed.

“Just sleep, okay?” he said, leaning over her and landing a light kiss on her forehead. Ty Lee’s eyelids fluttered for a moment, but she knew the drugs were already taking her.

“No one ever asks me to dance,” Ty Lee mumbled softly and then drifted into a hazy sleep. Suki smoothed her hair back again, watching her with a closed expression on her face. She didn’t know why, but she felt relieved at Ty Lee’s confession. Even though Azula had already filled them in on why Ty Lee had been in the dungeon, it was still nice to hear it from her friend’s lips.

She could trust Ty Lee. Knowing that mattered to her right now, more than anything.

The door opened silently, causing Suki to turn toward it with her dagger drawn. Nam-Kyu stopped dead in her tracks, one white eyebrow lifting as she saw the blade and Suki’s stance. Her lips twisted and she dismissed Suki with a glance at Ty Lee.

“I think that’s enough excitement for now,” she said and gestured them out of the room. Zuko followed them out the door and into the hallway.

“She was pretty out of it,” Zuko said the moment Nam-Kyu closed the door.

“If she wasn’t, she’d be very uncomfortable right now,” Nam-Kyu said and then sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “Your Councilman, on the other hand, is pretty miserable at the moment.”

“He’s in pain?” Suki asked, as Nam-Kyu started down the hallway. They followed her, walking as softly as possible.

“He’s got third-degree burns on his face. No amount of pain killers can dull that kind of pain for long, I’m afraid. Well,” and here she glanced back at Zuko with an appraising eye, “you would know, I suppose.”

Zuko touched his scar lightly and then dropped his hand as if he were ashamed at the action. She remembered the look on his face when she’d kissed his scar this morning, how surprised he’d seemed by it. The truth was that she’d stopped really seeing the scar a long time ago. It was as much a part of him as his eye color. She’d never known him without it, but she knew that it still bothered him.

“Is he awake yet?” she asked Nam-Kyu.

“Awake and deafeningly loud about it,” the healer responded with a snort. “I still don’t know what he did to deserve getting his face set on fire, or why he’s under guard now, but if he’s a danger to my staff, I need to know it.”

“He might be. I’m not sure. Is he up for visitors? It’s important that we speak to him,” Zuko said.

“Well, I suppose if it’s important,” Nam-Kyu held open the door that lead to the outer room, the hub of the healing ward. She seemed to think for a moment and then sighed as they stepped through. “Follow me.”

But Suki stopped dead in her tracks the moment they entered the hub, drawing up with a sharp breath.

“Hmm…wasn’t therea guard…?” Nam-Kyu started, sounding confused as Zuko cursed under his breath and glanced at Suki. Wordlessly, she pulled her fan while his hands lit up with fire.

“Stay behind us,” Suki shot at Nam-Kyu, whose tiny face paled with understanding, though she didn’t hesitate to follow them into the now-unguarded hallway at a sprint.

Suki pushed Zuko back as they approached the only open door in the hallway. She glanced into the room, her dagger drawn, fan in her hand. She assessed the sterile little room and then jerked her head back at Zuko as she slid her fan back into her belt, feeling sick to her stomach with anger and worry.

Zuko followed her in, with Nam-Kyu bringing up the rear.

“Sweet scaly dragon tits,” Nam-Kyu cursed, and under different circumstances, Suki might have laughed at her colorful language, but she was too busy bending over the green-clad figure on the floor.

She rolled Xuiying over, revealing a swelling bruise on her temple, and a thin trickle of blood pooling just below her nose. She was limp, but breathing evenly. Suki let out a sigh of relief as she pulled her up into her arms. Nam-Kyu knelt next to her, reaching out her hands to check her over.

“She’s breathing,” Suki said harshly. “She’ll be okay. Check on Osamu.”

But Nam-Kyu clucked in disapproval, her lips turning down, creating a road map of lines in her saggy cheeks. “Honey, he’s deader than a doornail.”

Suki stared at the old woman, her eyes burning. Then she looked up at Zuko, who was standing beside Osamu’s bed, his hands burning at his sides. Gently, she put Xuiying down on the ground beside Nam-Kyu and stood on shaky legs.

She looked at Osamu’s body in the bed, confirming what her first glance had told her, but what her mind hadn’t wanted to believe.

Osamu lay on the bed under a warm blanket to fight off the chill of his burns. A white mesh cloth, freshly changed, lay over his face, covering the worst of his burns, though she could still see a faint bubbling near his jawline that looked raw and red. It wasn’t the burn that stole her gaze, though, but the dagger in his throat, and the blood drenching the crisp white linens and spilling onto the floor.

Suki felt sick to her stomach, but it wasn’t because of the blood.

“Aiko…what have you done?” she whispered in shock.

But Aiko was long gone.


	20. Chapter 20

Sweat poured down her back, soaking into the thick green robe of her uniform. Her heavy armor felt likeit weighed an extra twenty pounds. She shifted in place, feeling beads of sweat trickling down her temples, streaking her white makeup. The rain may have ended the heat wave outside, but the palace itself was still as hot as an oven.

Aiko blew out a shaky breath, reaching up and swiping at the sweat. Her sleeve came away white and smeared with red from her eye makeup.

Something about the red paint made her stomach flip-flop and she felt bile rising inside of her, coiling like a snake. Her insides felt dirty, like they might never come clean again. She closed her eyes, trying not to think about the way Osamu had looked at her when she’d entered his room and knocked Xuiying out with the pommel of her dagger.

He’d known why she was there. Of course he’d known. He’d expected someone to come for him, to silence him eventually. That was the way the Smoke Demons operated. Failure was not an option, and Osamu had failed to kill Azula and her lover.

Her sweaty hands clenched and she licked the sweat from her upper lip, trying not to remember the way he had drowned in his own blood after she’d slid the knife into his throat. About the way his eyes had glared at her. She’d remember that look for the rest of her life.

However long that was.

She pushed the thoughts away. Remembering what she’d done wouldn’t do anything but cripple her, and she needed to be alert. She knew she needed to run. The guards were searching for her and if Suki caught her, the Smoke Demons would see that as a failure, but her instructions had been clear. She was to kill Osamu, and then wait in this empty room until further instructions were given.

And if she failed to do so, they would kill her mother.

There was a part of her that wondered if they hadn’t already killed her mother. She wouldn’t put it past them—whoever they were. They were ruthless and brutal. They’d proven that the first time she’d been contacted.

Six months ago she’d come into her rooms at the palace, only to find a small box and a letter sitting on her bed. The letter had simply stated, “We have your mother.  If you tell anyone, we will know. We have spies everywhere. If you do not cooperate, we will kill her. Wait for us to contact you again.”

She had read and reread the letter in numb disbelief, shocked at its sudden and brutal starkness. Her first instinct was to tell Suki, and she was halfway to the door when she remembered the box on the bed.

With trembling hands, she’d opened the little box, only to find a severed finger sitting inside. She’d known it was her mother’s finger by the opal ring it still wore. Her mother had worn that ring all of her life.

Aiko hadn’t gone to Suki. She hadn’t told anyone. She had thrown up in fear, panicking, questions pounding in her skull. Eventually, she had taken the ring off of the finger and hidden it in her rooms. She had buried her mother’s finger in the palace gardens and then lived in a state of waking fear until the next letter had found its way into her suite.

She had been instructed to spy on the Fire Lord, to write down everything she saw or heard while she was guarding him. She was to leave the letters in a lotus-shaped urn in the fourth floor corridor every evening. Failure to report would result in her mother’s death.

Sick to her stomach, she had dutifully wrote down the things she saw and heard, leaving her letters in the urn. She had tried, once, to see who took the letters out of the urn, hiding in the corridor behind the drapes. That had earned her one of her mother’s toes, wrapped up like a present on her bed once again.

She had written down everything she’d seen; from Zuko’s conversations with his Council, to what he ate for dinner and when. She didn’t know why it was important. She feared that her blackmailers wouldn’t stop at information. Soon, she knew, they’d demand more of her.

She stopped sleeping, stopped eating. She jumped at small sounds. She spent her time on duty wondering where and if her mother was alive. She was afraid. Terrified for the other shoe to drop, for their demands to become dangerous and deadly.

A few days before the assassination attempt on the balcony, she received a letter instructing her to meet a man dressed as a jewelry peddler in the stables of the palace, and lead him to a room on the floor below Zuko’s suite. She was not to ask him any questions. She was to kill him if he failed, or was captured. If she didn’t, her mother’s life was forfeit.

She did as she was told, and when she’d heard the commotion through the heavy doors of Zuko’s suite, she had burst in there, sure that her actions had brought about the Fire Lord’s death. Sure that Suki, her Captain, her friend, her _sister_ , would have sacrificed herself in order to save Zuko.

Her relief had been overwhelming when she’d seen both Zuko and Suki struggling to hold onto each other, and the assassin running at them. Her dagger had left her hand before she’d known she was even going to throw it. It had taken the assassin in the throat, silencing him forever.

Her fault. It had been her fault he was in the palace. Her fault that Suki had been stabbed. That they both might have died.

She had been charged with protecting the Fire Lord, and she had failed in her duty.  She hated herself, hated the fear that choked the words in her throat. That she had fulfilled the Smoke Demon’s command to silence the assassin should he fail meant nothing. She would have killed him anyway. Should have killed him in the stables.

The anonymous letters had continued though, praising her for her quick actions, and instructing her to report on the relationship between Zuko and Suki. She had only reported seeing them kissing, but the rumors that had followed had been salacious. Why her anonymous blackmailer cared about what was going on between the Fire Lord and his bodyguard, she still didn’t know. It hardly seemed the stuff terrorists should care about.

After the attempt, she’d wanted to go to Suki, to tell her about the blackmail, but the thought of her mother suffering had stopped her. She couldn’t do it, couldn’t take the risk of her innocent, gentle mother suffering for her mistakes. She’d play the game, until she could see a way out. Until she could rescue her mother. So she waited for her next instructions, dreading and fearing what she would be made to do.

A letter was slipped into her pocket during the Council meeting after the disastrous ball, instructing her to go to the dungeon and kill Azula and her accomplice, who had failed in their clunky attempt on Zuko’s life.

She hadn’t done it. She wasn’t sure why—Princess Azula and her accomplice had tried to murder Zuko, after all—but she had balked at the very idea of putting a knife in the Fire Lord’s sister. She couldn’t do it, wouldn’t.

Aiko had left a note in the urn telling the anonymous blackmailer that she was out. An hour later she had received a letter, slipped beneath her door, that said simply, “Then she will suffer.”

Still, she had refused.

The next thing she knew, Ty Lee had been shot, Osamu had been caught and Azula and her accomplice—who had turned out to be Sokka—were on their way out of the capitol, having been double agents the whole time. She had never been so happy to have refused in her life.

She felt sick to her stomach at the thought of what might have happened if she’d gone through with it. And with Osamu caught, surely the letters would stop. She had thought for sure that he had been the contact—certainly he had been the one to slip her the letter after the Council meeting—but that set off a whole new level of terror in her. Surely her refusal to carry out their orders had resulted in her mother’s pain and suffering. Maybe even her death.  

She had spent the whole night in a twisted mess of nerves, guilt and panic.

A letter and a box had been on her bed that morning, telling her to kill Osamu, and that if she failed her mother would die. And so would she.

Her mother’s right ear had been in the box, along with a blood-splattered note in her mother’s handwriting. It had simply said, “I love you.”

Bile rose in her just thinking about it, about how her mother had suffered just to keep her in line. She’d known refusing would harm or kill her mother, but she had had to try and call their bluff. She’d thought, mistakenly, that Osamu was the only Smoke Demon in the palace. She had been wrong, and she had no idea who the other person one.

Whoever they were, they weren’t bluffing though, and she had gone to her post at Osamu’s bedside that morning a with roiling stomach and a sick heart.

No matter what she did, she was damned. She tried to console herself with the fact that Osamu was in league with the Smoke Demons, that he had nearly killed Ty Lee. That he had conspired to kill the Fire Lord. It didn’t help. He had still drowned in his own blood, glaring at her in fear and pain. And it hadn’t helped at all.

Now here she was, waiting for the next terrible order from a faceless band of terrorists, hunted, a betrayer to the crown, to her friends, her family, everything she had ever held dear.

“I should give myself up,” she said softly. “Tell them everything. Suki will understand. Even if she doesn’t, how can I live with myself?”

Tears welled in her eyes as she weighed her options. There was no way she could get out of the palace anyway. There were guards everywhere. They would find her eventually, and to get free, she would have to hurt someone innocent. Maybe even one of her friends.

And for what? The Smoke Demons still had her mother, and she had no idea where. If she left the palace, she would have no idea where to even start looking. She might not be able to contact her blackmailers if she ran, and if they couldn’t control her, they would kill her mother.

There was no way to win this game. She had become a pawn and she had been sacrificed in one easy move. Her mother—if she were still alive—would surely die if she turned herself in though. Aiko smacked her fist into her thigh, choking on a sob as her tears and sweat ruined her makeup, and the heat frizzed her black hair.

She simply had no choice but to wait in here, as she’d been told.

Finally, she stood from her crouch against the wall, squaring her shoulders as she took a steady breath. She didn’t know what she was going to do. She hadn’t made up her mind yet, but she knew she couldn’t stay there any longer.

She eased open the closet door, peering into the dark corners of the unused sitting room—one of many in the palace. The servants hadn’t searched it yet. The sitting room was in the south wing, where guests at the ball had recently been housed. The servants and guards were more likely to be searching the populated parts of the palace first, which was why she’d run here first thing, to give herself some time to think.

She crept to the window, intending to peer out past the heavy drapes to see how busy the courtyard was. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she liked to have options, just in case. If she could get out the window, she might be able to take off across the grounds. Maybe scale the walls of the caldera, or hide out in one of the many manor houses surrounding the palace…

Her hand touched the casement, just as the door behind her opened. The next moment, pain erupted in her hand and she screamed in shock.

She stared at her hand for a second, at the dagger in it. Her fingers shook and curled into claws as tears sprang to her eyes. She reached up and pulled on it, panicked, and found that the blade had penetrated the wooden window frame beneath her palm. With her left hand, she tried to pull the dagger free, half-turning in place to face her attacker. She expected it to be another Kyoshi Warrior, or a guard.

Instead, she found herself staring at three hooded figures, who had appeared from the closet door where she’d been hiding. Confusion struck her. How had they gotten in?

Two of the figures were tall, broad-shouldered and menacing. The other was smaller, with one hand hitched on their hip in an impatient way. All three of their hoods were up, shadows hiding their features.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the smaller one asked, in a voice unmistakeably female.

“Who are you? How did you get in here?” she demanded, tugging on the dagger. Pain made her hand cramp around the blade, her nails digging into the window frame. Sweat and blood made the handle slippery. She felt like she was going to pass out.

A laugh escaped the smaller figure, shivery and high, full of derision. “This palace is full of secrets.”

“What do you want?”

“You didn’t do your job, you little bitch and you cost me Osamu. And after we went to all that trouble to kidnap your mother and to cut off her fingers and toes just to keep you in line! You must not love your mother very much,” the woman snapped.

“Don’t hurt her! Please! I did what you asked. I killed Osamu!”

“But you didn’t kill Azula, did you? You were given a direct order and when you refused, Osamu tried to cover for you. Osamu fucked it up and now she’s out there somewhere and she took _Iroh_ with her too! Now I’m going to have to hunt her down and slit her fucking throat. All of my plans are in shambles because of _you_ , you stupid little cunt!”

Fear shocked through her, riding out the pain. “ _You’re_ the one? You’re the leader of the Smoke Demons? Who are you?”

“A woman who has been patient enough. A woman who does not accept failures. A woman who is tired of not getting what she wants. I have spent years planning this and I won’t have _you_ fuck it up. That’s why I came here myself. I want to watch one of you painted sluts die.”

Aiko pulled on the dagger, wiggling it to loosen its hold on the casement. It finally came free and she nearly collapsed in pain, sagging against the wall as she gasped. She pulled the dagger out of her hand  the next moment, blood chasing the blade and dripping onto the floor. Pain throbbed through her, as hot as a fire. Her head swam and she fought the urge to pass out.

“Wh-what do you want with me? Why me? Why did you do this to me?”

“ _Why me? Why me?_ ” the woman mocked in a babyish tone before snapping, “Because I _could._ I needed someone close to Zuko, someone who could report on everything he was doing, everything he was saying in private. I had Osamu for the Council, but I needed someone closer to him. I knew that painted whore of his would never turn on him, but one of her little Kyoshi Warriors? I could get to one of you. All I needed was the proper incentives to motivate you. Ah, the power of a child’s love for their mother. So easily exploited.”

A tear spilled down her cheek, hot and salty.

“Where is my mother? What did you with her?”

“You’re never going to find out, sweetheart. Zuko and his slut know you’re working for the Smoke Demons now and they’re tearing up the palace looking for you. You’ve outlived your usefulness and I don’t accept failures. Kill her for me, would you boys?”

The hooded woman rubbed the shoulder of one of the hulking men beside her.

“Yes, Mother,” they said in unison, their voices deep and menacing. Aiko held her hand to her chest, palming the dagger. She felt light-headed, blood gushing out of her and spilling across her uniform and onto the floor.

“No!” Aiko choked, tossing the bloody dagger. It wasn’t a good throw; it clipped one of the hulking brutes in the shoulder and clattered to the floor. He grunted and looked down at his shoulder, offended.

The woman made an angry screeching sound and turned on her, every inch of her robed body alive with anger. “You hurt my son!”

“I’m gonna do a lot worse than that,” Aiko said through her teeth, sweat pouring down her body as she got to her feet, cradling her injured hand to her chest. She palmed her own dagger again, eyes narrowing on the shadow beneath the woman’s hood.

Both brutes pulled swords from their belts and advanced on her. Aiko tossed her own dagger, hoping it would find its mark. The moment the dagger left her hand, she pulled her own short sword, getting it up just in time to block the swing of one of her attacker’s swords. They came together with a metallic ring at the same moment the woman screeched in pain.

“Mother!” one of the brutes exclaimed, turning away from Aiko and rushing to his mother’s side. The other growled at her in rage and attacked.

She blocked blow after blow, the window at her back. Blood slicked her blade as it gushed out of her hand, but she ignored it, gripping tightly, turning in a circle and knocking aside a sword point that nearly found the soft of her stomach.

She was better than her opponent, but he was bigger, stronger and fueled by rage. She was bleeding too much. All it would take would be one slip-up and he’d have her. Luckily for her, she’d been trained by the best. She knew how to win, even when the odds were against her.

She parried his thrust, and then spun in, bringing her elbow down on his inner arm. His sword clattered out of his hand and landed on the floor. She kicked it away and then turned again, punching him in the face with the pommel of her sword.

His hood went down, revealing a face that was oddly familiar beneath the blood gushing from the nose she’d broken. Blood slicked his teeth as he bared them at her, strands of his hair coming loose and falling in his eyes.

Where did she know him from?

“I’m gonna break you in half, you little bitch,” he said, going for her again, even though she was the one with a weapon now.

She stabbed at his middle, but he danced backward, faster on his feet than she would have given him credit for. His hands formed into large, rough fists. She pushed herself out of his reach, trying to clock where the others were.

Her feet slipped in her own blood, but she leaped a low table, kicking it toward him. He caught it, lifting it and charging at her. She ducked the swing, but he brought it down into her back like a battering ram, shoving her down into the floor. The air whooshed out of her.

She rolled onto her back, lifting her feet to block the next slam of the table with her feet. She launched herself up, twisting into a somersault and rolling between his legs. She twisted and kicked him in the ass, sending him tripping to the floor.

The table splintered beneath him as she rolled to her feet, reaching for her fan.

An enraged sound erupted out of him and he lumbered to his feet, turning on her and lowering his head like a bull. He charged at her again and she readied herself for a killing blow.

She moved in, but he spun to the side at the last second, and her sword went beneath his meaty arm. He clamped his arm down on it and twisted, driving his elbow down onto her forearm before she could let go of the sword.

It was her fatal mistake.

The bones in her forearm shattered, the breaking sound of the bone filling the air. She cried out, the sword falling from her fingers as her knees buckled.

At the same moment, a hand clamped onto the back of her neck, lifting her up off of her feet. She cried out as she was lifted high in the air, and then slammed down to the ground face first. She felt one of her teeth loosen, blood bursting from her mouth as she tried to get her hand to her belt, where  her fan was.

A heavy foot stepped on her fingers. The fan was plucked from her belt and tossed away.

“No…”

Another boot slammed into her rib cage, with an explosive force that lifted her up and then dropped her back down. She felt the bones shatter, and coughed up blood. Again and again the kicks slammed into her, until she curled into a ball, trying to protect her neck. Tears squeezed out of her swelling eyes.

“Enough!” the woman barked and her sons backed up, leaving Aiko in a bleeding ball on the floor. She peered through the blood flowing into her eyes at the woman kneeling beside her.

“P-ple-ase…” she managed, staring at the woman’s shadowed face. She could see blood on the woman’s arm, where she had caught her with her thrown dagger. It hadn’t been enough though.

“I do so love to hear you beg, darling,” the woman was saying, as Aiko swam in and out of consciousness. “But I’m bored with you and I have so much planning to do. My army is attacking soon, and I have a princess to find, a husband to trap, and a Fire Lord to dispatch of. A woman’s work is never done.”

“Wh-who are y-you?” she wheezed, trying to roll over, but one of the brutes put his foot on her, his weight making sparks dance in her gaze. She could just see the woman’s red lips pulling into a sly smile beneath her hood. Then she was standing above her, her head cocked to the side.

“Kill her.”

“N-no…” Aiko said, knowing it was too late. She could barely move. Everything was far away, tinged with darkness. She was already fading.

“Yes, Mother.”

Without preamble, one of the brutes grasped her head between his hands and twisted. Darkness followed, and she sank into it as easily as falling asleep.


	21. Chapter 21

“Report.”

The guardsman bowed at Suki and Zuko, and then righted. “General Mak and a large unit of soldiers are at the gates of the Caldera. Mak says he has important information for you, and wishes to deliver them in person. He also says that he’s brought the army to protect the palace and the capitol. What should I tell him, sire?”

Zuko thought for a moment and then turned toward Suki. “Mai said Mak was clean. What do you think?”

Suki shifted in place, feeling sick to her stomach. “Mai’s information has been right so far.”

Zuko nodded and turned toward the guardsman. “Let him in and only him. Bring him here. Leave the army on alert outside the Caldera gates until I send word.”

“Of course, sire,” the guardsman said, bowing out of the throne room, only for Fen to come in behind them. Zuko’s secretary was agitated, his carefully coiffed hair frizzing out in the heat and humid air. He  power walked toward him, a high flush in his cheeks.

“Sire! The main wing of the palace has been thoroughly searched. We’re starting on the south and east wings now. The courtyard, stables and walls have been fortified since the alert went up. No one reports seeing anyone leaving the palace since the evacuation after the ball.”

She should have been comforted by that, but Suki knew that Mai had made it into and out of the Caldera without being seen, and had made her way into the palace just as easily. It wasn’t impossible to sneak in and out. But did Aiko know how to do it?

“Aiko’s room?”

Fen shook his head. “The other Kyoshi Warriors searched it. Empty. If she left, she doesn’t seem to have packed a bag, Captain.”

Suki nodded, but she didn’t like the implications of that. Neither did Zuko, it seemed. “She has to be here somewhere then.”

“Every exit is secure? The Caldera’s entrances? Is the city watch on alert? Good. I want this place tossed from top to bottom. Leave no room unsearched, do you understand me?” Suki barked to the guard standing in front of her. He nodded, staring at her whey-faced.

“And if we find her?” he hazarded.

“Aiko’s armed and dangerous. I don’t want her harmed, but excessive force might be necessary. I want her taken alive. _Do you understand me?_ ”

“Yes, Captain!” Fen said, starting like he’d been shot. He bowed at her and then took off, gesturing for three of his men to follow. Their footsteps echoed down the corridor, leaving Suki and Zuko alone in the throne room.

“If she’s here, we’ll find her,” Zuko said, a weary note in his voice that made her turn toward him. Her insides felt like they were being squeezed by some invisible hand. She was finding it hard to breathe, but she didn’t have the luxury of breaking down just now. She needed to _do something._

“If she’s here, I’m going to kill her,” she snarled, pacing back and forth, one hand on her sword. She felt pinned in by the walls of the palace, like there were eyes watching her every move. The darkest corners were filled with assassins and arrows, just waiting to pick Zuko off.

She’d never felt claustrophobic before, not even when she’d been imprisoned at the Boiling Rock, spending day after day in her cell with only a few hours in the hot, acrid air for dreary exercise. But now, in the sprawling labyrinth of the palace’s vast walls, she felt as caged as a bird.

“Suki.”

“It’s my fault this happened,” she snapped, pacing, feeling hot and sweaty all of a sudden. She couldn’t stop thinking of Osamu with the knife in his throat, and Xuiying unconscious on the floor. Nam-Kyu had assured her that Xuiying would be fine, but that didn’t make her feel better. She had failed to protect both of them.

Anger rose in her, formless, wordless and as sudden as death. She turned, striking out with her sword. A red and gold vase smashed as her sword hit the marble walls with a sparking clang and bounced off, gouging out a chunk, which skittered across the floor with a bounce. Suki lowered the sword, staring at the broken pieces of the vase as she breathed hard, her eyes a little glazed. She was aware of Zuko at her side.

After a few moments, she felt his hand on her shoulder, his other hand slowly closing over hers. She let him take the sword from her hand and once its weight was gone from her palm, she looked up at him guiltily.

“Sorry. That…that was unprofessional.”

“Don’t apologize. We’re both under a lot of stress right now. Frankly, I’ve been fighting the urge to burn down the palace for the last few minutes, so watching you breaking that ugly vase was kinda cathartic. Feel better?”

“No.”

“Me neither,” he agreed, taking her shaking hand with his. He leaned against her, putting his forehead against hers. She breathed in for a long moment, letting herself for believe that everything was going to be okay.

The moment didn’t last. Anger tore at her and she shook in place.

“Aiko killed Osamu. She’s working for the Smoke Demons against her will. I feel like I failed her. I feel like I should have known. I should have at least went to Osamu when we first came to the hospital wing. I left him under her guard and I… I just handed our one lead to the enemy.”

“Suki, there’s no way you could have known. I made the same mistake. I just didn’t want to believe one of the Kyoshi Warriors would… Well, it’s still unbelievable.”

“She’s my friend, someone I think of a _sister._ She’s one of my girls, someone I’m supposed to protect and lead. I let her down, Zuko. I let this happen.”

The pain in Zuko’s eyes was too forgiving, and she had to look away. “Suki…”

She pulled her hands from his and squeezed her eyes shut tightly for a moment, just to block out the memory of Aiko’s face when they’d entered the wing. “Aiko killed the assassin on the balcony that night. She must have let him into the palace. She must have been told by Osamu or someone else to kill the assassin if he failed. I should have guessed.”

“We had no way of guessing that. Until Mai told us it was a possibility, we had no reason to suspect any of the Kyoshi Warriors, so stop beating yourself up. You haven’t failed her. Not yet. She needs you now more than ever, Suki. We have to find her and protect her from the Smoke Demons. You know there’s no way they’ll let her live, not now that we know she was working for them.”

Suki looked up at Zuko, studying him for a long moment. Everything in her life had been turned upside down lately, but there was one thing she could count on, and that was Zuko. The compressed feeling in her chest loosened a bit, just looking into his eyes. Her world had tilted on its axis with Aiko’s betrayal, but somehow Zuko’s calm presence at her side steadied her.

She took his hand again, squeezing it as she shook away the last of her stress. She’d had her outburst and that was all she was going to allow herself. Now was the time for action. Guilt and the blame game would come later, if ever.

“We should get you back to your suite. Somewhere safe, somewhere I can control the exits. I feel so exposed here.”

“What about Xuiying?”

“We’ll send Fen to ask after her,” Suki clipped, gesturing toward the exit.

“I’m not sure my suite is all that safe, to be honest,” Zuko said, handing her sword back. She slid it into her scabbard with a practiced motion.

At the same moment, a figure came bursting through the throne room doors, making her start, and pull the sword again. She stopped, however, when she recognized General Mak, who was clutching a piece of paper in his hand, looking harried and rain-soaked.

“Fire Lord Zuko, I just heard about Osamu. Are you alright?” General Mak said in his no-nonsense tones.

Mai’s information had cleared the General’s name, but Suki was finding it hard to trust anyone at the moment. If Mak was a smart man, he’d understand her stance on the matter. Luckily for him, he wordlessly clocked the situation and brought himself up, nodding at her solemnly and then turning his gaze on the Fire Lord.

“General Mak, why did you bring my army here? I didn’t summon you,” Zuko asked as Suki’s sword left her scabbard again. Mak’s eyes flicked to the sword and back at Zuko.

“No, you didn’t, but I felt the palace needed the protection. After I received your letter warning me about possible agents within the ranks I immediately started an investigation in order to ferret them out,” he said gravely. “I managed to catch one of them, who turned on six others. They’ve been imprisoned. I don’t know if we caught them all, and the men we did catch are not talking. One even tried to kill himself in his cell. He’s recovering. While he was in the hospital, we found a letter on his person.”

“What was in the letter?” Zuko asked, brow furrowing.

“The Smoke Demons are planning an attack on the palace,” General Mak said, holding out a letter. Zuko took it, eyes narrowing as he read it.

“It doesn’t say when.”

“No, sire. We couldn’t get any of our captors to talk. I have a team of men interrogating them, to no avail. They’d rather die.”

Zuko nodded, his face blank. “Do you think the Smoke Demons have enough men to mount an attack on the Caldera?”

General Mak’s face was regretful, his dark brows shadowing his tired eyes. “I don’t know, sire. But they’re obviously confident that they can. I brought my troops. They’re fortifying the city, the road to the Caldera and the palace. I came myself because I didn’t trust the lines of communication. The boy you sent with my letter seemed trustworthy enough, but the information I had needed to be delivered in person. Besides, after what happened at the ball, I wanted to be here to protect you myself. I’d like to assist the Captain in any way that I can,” he said, nodding at Suki, who didn’t relax her stance at all. Zuko glanced at her and put one hand on her shoulder, silently telling her to relax. She found it a little hard, but managed to get the hostile look off of her face with some effort. “You aren’t wrong, General. I could definitely use your expertise right now. And your manpower.”

“Where’s the Seneschal?”

“Jiang’s been on house arrest since the assassination attempt at the ball, just like the other Councilors. I’m going to fire him when this is all over.” Mak’s brows rose, but he didn’t comment. Instead, he nodded, thin-lipped.

“I’ve always thought he was a bit incompetent,” Mak said. “I wouldn’t have felt comfortable leaving him in charge of your protection if you didn’t have the Kyoshi Warriors to guard you as well.”

Zuko caught her eye and then looked away. “Yes, I agree. Anyway, I’ve received new information since I sent you that letter and I have a large list of suspected Smoke Demons. Mayor Yukishima is on the list.”

Mak’s eyes widened. “Spirits! Are you serious?”

“Unfortunately. We should have him arrested as soon as possible. Tonight. Along with everyone else on the list,” Zuko said, pulling it out of his belt. He handed it to Mak, who scanned it with a shocked expression on his face.

“Two of the men we captured are named. And some of these… My Lord, Commander Vizko is on this list!”

“I know,” Zuko said tiredly. “Who knew so many people wanted me off of the throne? I’m trying not to take it personally.”

“I’ll send my best men after every single person on the list. We’ll have them before dawn, I promise you,” Mak said solemnly, and there was anger there too. “If there’s to be an attack on the palace, maybe chopping off some of these heads will weaken this beast.”

“I wouldn’t count on it, but we can hope,” Zuko said as Fen burst into the room at a run, breathing hard. The three of them turned to him and Suki saw the paleness of the secretary’s face. His eyes were wide as he pulled to a screeching halt on the marble, nearly losing his footing as he did so.

“CAPTAIN! We found Aiko!”

Suki started, shoving her sword back into its scabbard. “Where? Did the guards capture her?”

The fear in Fen’s eyes was visceral and sent warnings to her heart that her mind wasn’t ready to process. “Captain…  Suki. She’s…she’s…”

“Fen?” Zuko said in a dangerously low voice.

“She’s dead, sire. Aiko is dead.”

The air seemed to rush out of her unbidden. Her head was suddenly buzzing. She felt faint, but fought through it. Surely Fen was mistaken. She refused to believe it.

“Where?” she found herself saying, moving toward Fen with purposeful steps. “Where did they find her, Fen?”

“The south wing. A sitting room. She… The other Kyoshi Warriors are with her. I…”

But Suki didn’t let him finish. She found herself running through the throne room, no other thought in her head but to get to Aiko. Because it couldn’t be true. It _couldn’t_. She had just seen her that morning.

She didn’t spare a thought to Zuko’s safety, as the corridors of the palace sped by her. Guards and servants darted out of her way as she passed, and she realized that someone was following her—several someones. She didn’t turn to see who it was. She knew that it was Zuko. No one else mattered.

She found the south wing corridor, following the sound of Fen’s frantic shouting from somewhere behind her. She turned down another corridor and saw Kikki and Mei Lin standing outside of an open doorway. She pulled to a stop in front of them, seeing the tear tracks on their painted faces.

“Suki…” Mei Lin started, but she cut her off with a shake of her head.

“No. _NO!_ ” she said, feeling Zuko touch her hand, but she pushed him away. She didn’t want comfort right now, didn’t want the safety of his touch. She wanted revenge.

“It looks like she… She put up a fight, Suki,” Kikki, who looked like she had thrown up recently, said. She glistened with sweat beneath her makeup, her dark eyes haunted.

Suki’s gaze darted to the open doorway. Qing was standing there, blocking her view of the room.

“Let me go in first, baby,” Zuko said in her ear, but his voice seemed to be far away, tinny and metallic. She swallowed and wiped a hand down her face. “You don’t have to see this.”

“Yes, I do. I have to see her,” she said through dry lips, and then pushed Qing aside, spilling into a room painted red with blood.

Her gaze swept the room, noting the overturned furniture, the splinters of wood on the floor, a dagger lying in a fresh pool of blood two feet from the door. It wasn’t one of the one’s the Warrior’s carried. It belonged to the murderer. She clocked it, and swept her gaze up to the rest of the room.

Tam was in the corner, staring at something on the wall. She ignored her and looked at the only important thing in the room. Rin and Chao-Ahn were crouched over a green-and-gold clad body lying prone on the floor. Rin was sobbing brokenly. Chao-Ahn looked up at her when she entered. She looked as haunted as Kikki had, but there was a determined thrust to her jaw as well. Chao-Ahn, at least, knew the anger that was boiling inside of Suki, and like recognized like.

“The bastards beat her to death and snapped her neck,” Chao-Ahn said through her teeth, standing up over their fallen friend as Suki walked closer, moving carefully around the pools of blood on the floor. Suki fell to her knees next to Aiko’s body.

Her gaze roved disbelievingly over Aiko’s body. She noted the odd angle of her sword arm. Broken. The ragged stab wound in her other palm. The twisted angle of her neck. Whoever had killed her had been strong. A huge man, most likely. Strong enough to nearly twist her head off.

Suki fought the urge to throw up at the sight of Aiko’s beaten face and her swollen eyes, which had just begun to cloud. She hadn’t been dead long before they’d found her.

The killer was probably still in the palace.

Suki lifted trembling hands and closed Aiko’s sightless eyes. She bent and kissed her forehead. “I’m so sorry, sister. I failed you.”

A hot tear rolled down her cheek, but she brushed it away. She couldn’t afford to cry. She had to _think._ She had to function. She had to find the bastards responsible. No more waiting for them to make a move. She’d burn the palace to the ground if it meant the parasites infecting it perished.

“Spirits help me, _Aiko_ …” Zuko said behind her. She turned to look up at him. He looked as pale as death, and there was a guilty expression on his face. “They killed her because of me, Suki.”

Suki’s jaw set as she got to her feet. “This isn’t your fault, Zuko. It’s the Smoke Demons. They used her and disposed of her when she outlived her usefulness. Just like they tried to do to Azula and Sokka. And Osamu. It’s how they work. They need to be destroyed.”

“Suki…”

“No one move,” Suki said, looking around the room again. She saw Aiko’s sword a few feet away, and a sword she didn’t recognize. She went over to it. It was a thick sword, heavy. Made for a large man. There was no blood on the blade, despite the blood splattered on the walls and across the floor and furniture.

“What are you doing, Captain?”General Mak asked. She hadn’t realized he had followed them too. She didn’t care.

“Shut up,” Zuko snapped at him before she could.

Suki glanced back at Aiko’s hand and then at the strange dagger lying on the floor. She went over to the dagger and eyed it. Then she looked at the walls. She saw blood smeared beneath the room’s single window and crossed the blood to get to it. She saw a ragged hole in the window ledge, blood pooling in the indent the same size of the dagger.

Then she crossed to Aiko’s dagger, lying on the floor in another pool of blood, this one bigger than the other one. There were scraps of cloth lying in the blood, threads from a ripped seam. She saw large boot prints in the blood, two different types of men’s boots, and another smaller set of footprints.

A lady’s slipper.

Suki’s jaw set and she glanced at Tam, who was still standing in front of something. The Kyoshi Warrior looked fearful, watching her with wide eyes. Everyone else in the room was watching her silently. Zuko looked worried, like she had snapped.

She cleared her throat, suddenly realizing that she had a hard lump in it. Maybe it was just vomit. She swallowed and licked sweat off of her upper lip.

“At some point they put that throwing dagger in her hand. She got it out and threw it across the room at her assailant. I can’t tell if she hit them or not. Her other dagger is over here. It’s got blood all over it. She hit someone with it. There’s fabric here. Someone helped bind the wound. Aiko fought with a man. A large man. Here’s his footprints. He broke this table at some point during the fight. She hurt him. There’s blood on this wood here and I’ll bet it’s not hers. There was another man, pretty big too. He probably got the drop on her somehow. They broke her arm before they started beating her and that’s how she lost her sword. They took turns kicking her. One of the men snapped her neck.”

“How do you know that?” Fen asked, his hand over his mouth.

“Because she’s brilliant,” Zuko said fiercely, following her gaze as she tracked one of the men’s bloody footprints across the room. “Two men did this?”

“Yes. But there was someone else here. A woman.”

She met Zuko’s gaze and she knew they were both remembering what Mai had said about brothers. _Making the brothers angry._

“Brothers. The men were brothers,” she said for everyone else’s benefit, though how she knew, she couldn’t say for certain. She felt it in her bones.

“And the woman?” Zuko asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ll bet she was the one who was injured during the fight. Aiko hurt her. It wasn’t long ago. Less than an hour. When did they find her?”

“About twenty minutes ago. A servant found her first, and set up the alarm. We arrived about ten minutes later. We sent for you immediately,” Chao-Ahn spoke up.

“They’re still in the palace,” Zuko said, glancing at Fen, who nodded.

“I’ll go oversee the search. I’ll send Nam-Kyu to… To…take the body… When you’re finished,” Fen said, his voice shaking as he ducked out of the room. Silence fell on them all again. Rin was still sobbing, seemingly unable to stop. Suki wanted to comfort her, but she wasn’t sure she had it in her to be comforting at the moment. She was filled with so much anger.

“Suki…there’s… That’s not all,” Tam said cautiously after a moment, her voice tremulous. “There’s… The killers left a message.”

Suki turned on Tam and watched as the girl stepped aside, revealing the sight of Aiko’s golden fan spread against the wall, pierced by a dagger. A message hastily written in blood covered the fan and the wall beside it. The red was lurid and dripping.

Suki felt sick to her stomach as Zuko swore under his throat.

“ _You’re next, whore_ ,” Suki read aloud, feeling cold fury down into her bones. She walked forward, staring at the words, at the clear meaning in them. At the symbol of the Kyoshi Warriors desecrated and profaned on the wall, just as Aiko had been.

“Why would they write that? Are they threatening the Fire Lord’s life?” Mak asked in obvious confusion after a long silence. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her, including Zuko’s.

She turned her head, meeting his gaze. “No, General. This message was meant for me.”

If the General was confused, Zuko wasn’t. She wasn’t surprised when he let out a snarl of rage and kicked over a table. He shattered it with his fist, in a hail of fire and curse words.

“I’m going to fucking kill them,” Zuko said through his teeth, rising from the flaming debris, sparks practically flying off of him in his rage. “They can’t threaten you like this. They try and hurt you and I’ll burn every single one of these fuckers.”

Suki ignored his outburst, her gaze flicking to the floor, following the faintest outline of a bloody footprint on the floor. The prints turned away from the fan on the wall and headed toward a door tucked into the corner of the room, by the fireplace. She opened the door, finding a small, dusty closet inside. There was another footprint there, faint and pink. Why in the hell had they gone into the closet?

“Captain?” Tam asked, coming up behind her.

“Zuko, come here,” she said and he immediately pushed past Tam. “I need a light.”

He lifted his palm and fire flickered to life there, tossing the shadows to the corners of the closet. “What is it?”

“They came in here, but I don’t know why. There’s a footprint. Why would they come into a closet, Zuko? There’s nothing in here.”

“That’s weird,” Zuko agreed and lifted his hand along the wall. After a moment his eyes narrowed and lifted his other hand, running it along the paneling. “There are scratches in the wood here, near this seam.”

They met gazes, probably thinking the same thing. Zuko’s jaw tightened and he put his fingernails beneath the edge of the panel. The back wall of the closet popped open, revealing a dark tunnel that seemed to go on forever.

A laugh burst out of her, unbidden, entirely inappropriate and totally bitter. Another secret tunnel. That explained a lot.

“Fuck me,” Zuko snarled in agreement.

* * *

Mai paced back and forth beneath the slight overhang provided by the buildings huddling together on either side of the little alley. Rain poured down in buckets, making the city smell like the ocean, wet garbage and urine. Her nose wrinkled as she tucked her hands into her long sleeves, feeling her throwing daggers in their wrist sheaths. She liked to play with the mechanism, letting one drop into her palm and then putting it back into the sheath, only to drop it out again.

It was a nervous habit as much as it was a way to practice the movement. It kept her hands busy, her ill-at-ease mind racing as her body focused on the small task.

Her informant was late.

In her line of work, that wasn’t a good sign. Which meant they might have been caught, turned her in, or they’d fled in order to escape capture. She hoped it was the last one. Her informant, a merchant who had agreed to host meetings for the Smoke Demons beneath his shop, had been sketching the faces of every Smoke Demon who had come into his shop. It was his information that had led her and June to the members she had uncovered so far.

The merchant had told her that he had new information for her, a clue as to who the brothers were that she had heard about. Now she was beginning to distrust him. This felt like a trap.

She had just made up her mind to go when a body skidded into the alley, shocking her for a moment before she recognized the paunchy figure stumbling along. Her informant.

“R-run…” he wheezed, and she realized that the man’s back was riddled with arrows. He fell at her feet, grasping her hands with his cold, wet ones. In the dim light, she could just make out his bearded face, the blood on the corner of his mouth. “They know. And they’re planning… An attack. _Army._ Coming in by air. I heard them… I…”

An arrow whizzed by Mai’s shoulder and took the man in the throat, silencing him. Mai spun away from him,  reeling backward against the wall, ducking and sliding along the rough, water slimed bricks and into a pile of refuse as a hail of arrows followed her. She shoved a metal trash bin in front of herself, and the arrows pierced the bin with a _bang-bang-bang-bang_ as loud as the rain.

She flicked the mechanism on both of her wrist sheaths, her red throwing daggers dropping into her palms with the ease years of practice had given her. Her eyes narrowed beneath the wet tangle of her heavy black bangs as she turned her gaze up to the rooftop, where her attackers had thought to get the drop on her.

She tossed one, two, three daggers in rapid succession and was rewarded with a strangled shout. A body fell off of the roof and landed in a heap in the middle of the alley. She waited a moment, her ears straining through the deluge. Then she crouched along the wall, keeping beneath the overhang until she reached the body.

She did a quick scan of her attacker, who had died with one with one of her dagger’s in his left eye, another in his heart, the third in his throat. She rarely missed these days. Fighting for her life had honed her accuracy with frightening efficiency.

She searched the archer’s body, noting the Smoke Demons tattoo on his inner forearm. She had one too. Playing the part of a loyal turncoat meant she’d had to have the flame branded on her body forever. She’d put it on the back of her shoulder, that way she never had to see it. Just knowing it was there made her queasy.

She didn’t recognize the archer, whoever he was, but his very presence and his purpose told her all she needed to know. She glanced at the merchant, feeling a sharp sadness in her. The man had risked his life to run to her, to tell her that her cover was blown. She checked his pockets as well, but found only money there. She pocketed it, thinking of how it might come in handy if she had to run.

How had the Smoke Demons known that the merchant was informing on them? Had they known she was the informant? If so, how long had they known she’d been trying to take them down? Maybe they’d found the body of the men she’d killed in the pursuit of that goal, all of them ranked high in the hierarchy of the terrorist cell. Or maybe they’d spotted her making her way into the palace today, to warn Zuko.

Maybe they didn’t know any of that. Maybe her cover was intact. She’d killed the archer, who could tell her if she was now a target or not.

It didn’t matter. She couldn’t risk it either way. Besides, she was tired of playing nice with a bunch of zealots who blindly followed a faceless master. She had given up the last two years of her life to protect the Fire Nation and her ex boyfriend from being slaughtered on the alter of terrorist ideals. She wasn’t about to follow the same fate as this merchant.

The Smoke Demons didn’t tolerate failure and they certainly didn’t tolerate weakness. She had the sinking feeling that she was a was a dead woman if she showed her face again.

She plucked the daggers from the man’s body, wiping the gore off on his clothing. She palmed the daggers in her hand, resting them between her fingers. She was going to need all the weapons she could get. The archer probably had friends.

She needed to get out of the capitol. Now.

Her mind cast about, analyzing her escape routes. By land, she could make her way out of the city into the rough, volcanic countryside. All of the routes out of the city would certainly be watched by agents. She could kill them on her way out, but they’d know she had gone that way. They would search for her. Without food or shelter, she wouldn’t last long in the wilds outside the city. By sea was a better choice, but they would expect that. There would agents at the docks, waiting for her. She could dispatch of them, steal a boat and take off. If they were even looking for her.

That was her best bet, but it would leave Zuko to handle this army alone. Well, not alone. He had Suki—and she tried her damnedest not to think of what she’d walked in on just that morning—but there was no way they could know that an attack was imminent. That an army was amassing, an army she’d never heard of, for all her investigations.

Something wasn’t right here. The Smoke Demons held all of the cards right now and she sure as hell wasn’t about to leave Zuko to face this thing alone.

Mai stood and turned in the direction of the palace, her mind made up. She wasn’t going to run. That was the coward’s way out.

The moment she stood, she heard a sound from above her, a scrape of boots on rough tiles. It was all the warning she had before arrows rained down on her from above, thick and heavy.


	22. Chapter 22

Little by little, Mai became aware of the fact that she was lying on her side in room that smelled of mildew and rat droppings. Dust tickled her nose as she forced her eyes open, only to be greeted with darkness, save a thin line of light showing beneath what had to be a door. Pain throbbed in her temple, the bitter taste of blood heavy on her tongue, coating her teeth with salty grime. Confusion tugged at her mind. As she shifted on the floor, she felt pain shock down through her left arm, which was bound to her right arm behind her back. She moved her feet, and found that they were bound together as well. Panic hit her for a moment, and then she calmed herself.

Panicking wouldn’t help. She needed to think.

How had she gotten like this?

The alley. Arrows. One had pierced her upper arm. The archer she’d killed had brought friends. She’d fought back, killing another two of them before they’d captured her. One of them had struck her in the temple with a heavy object, knocking her unconscious.

They’d taken her alive then. Mai smiled in the darkness. They were going to regret not killing her when they’d had the chance.

How long she’d stay alive though, would depend on the next few minutes and she knew it. She felt for the mechanisms on her wrist sheaths, but they’d been stripped from her arms. That was fine. She’d take the weapons she needed. Except… She had a stash of shirshu darts in a sheath around her left ankle, which was hidden inside of her boot.

It was possible they hadn’t discovered them.

She blew out a breath, trying to ignore the way her head was throbbing and rolled onto her left side. A grunt left her as she put pressure on the wound in her left arm. Someone had taken out the arrow, but they hadn’t bound it, and she realized with a start that she was still bleeding freely.

“What a way to treat a lady,” she mumbled, pressing her left ankle down into the floor. She felt the sheath press into her skin and let out a mental sigh of relief. They hadn’t found the darts then.

She pushed her mind past that small victory and focused on getting her bound arms in front of her body, where it would be easier to fight back if they came to kill her.

Biting down on the grunt of pain that wanted to escape her, she wriggled onto her back, her left arm in agony as she laid on her wrists. Pressing her bound feet into the floor, she lifted her hips off of the ground and stretched her arms forward.

Sweat popped out on her skin from the effort, pain making her left arm shake. Her whole side felt like it was on fire, but she keep going, slowly lowering her body as her wrists cleared her rear.

She stopped, breathing hard, her arm on fire, blood drenching the floor beneath her. Then, letting out another breath, she pulled her long legs into her chest and bent her knees.

She rolled to the side, wriggling and stretching until she got her wrists over her feet. She lay on her side, breathing hard into the dusty floor, drenched from the effort. Her head swam, but at least her arm wasn’t being stretched painfully behind her back.

If only she was as flexible as Ty Lee.

Mai sat up and brought her feet in, her numb and swollen fingers clumsy on the ropes binding her feet together. Slowly the knot loosened. She glanced up at the door every few seconds, waiting and listening. She strained her ears for the sounds of her captors, but she only heard the rain outside, pounding down on what sounded like a metal roof, and the faint hum of machinery somewhere nearby.

The ropes finally fell slack around her ankles and she kicked her feet free, stretching her legs to work out the cramps, and ease the tingle in her feet. She twisted her hands, trying to reach the knot on her wrists, but it was impossible to reach with her fingers. The ropes dug into her skin; whoever had tied her up had tightened the ropes to a painful degree.

Unable to reach the knots, she used her teeth instead, tugging on the frayed end of the rope so hard that it made her jaw ache. Agonizingly slowly, she loosened the knot, tugging it free, only to work on the next one, and the next one, until she could pull it free with a rough jerk of her head. Triumphant, she spat the foul-tasting rope out of her mouth and it fell slack in her lap.

Mai let out a sigh of relief, licking the blood from her lips where the coarse rope had rubbed her raw.

She flexed her fingers, letting the blood flow back into them, and wishing she had a bit more light. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, but there didn’t seem to be anything in the room but her, the ropes, and the rat shit in the corner.

She knew that she couldn’t risk wasting her small store of darts if they came for her. Who knew how many people she would have to fight beyond that door?

She took up both ropes, weighing them in her hands. They were thick, heavy and coarse. Her raw lips twisted into a little smile as she knotted and re-knotted the ends of the ropes into heavy, fist-sized clubs, and then put smaller knots along each length. It wouldn’t kill anyone, unless she strangled them with it, but it was better than nothing.

Shaking, feeling a bit woozy from the pain in her arm, she ripped a piece of her long coat off, and wrapped up the arrow wound. She pulled the knot tight with her teeth, biting back a cry as pain ran up and down her arm. Her left arm felt weakened from the wound and stretching it out set off a series of agonizing sensations that made her left hand loosen its grip.

Anger twisted her lips. If she got out of here alive, someone was going to pay for ruining her favorite coat.

Mai grabbed both ropes in her hands, trying to breath evenly. She knew standing would be rough. Her head was still throbbing and there was a bloody goose-egg on her head. She had the sinking suspicion that she’d suffered a concussion. She was going to make them pay for that too.

Her head throbbing in time to her heartbeat as she shakily got first to her knees, then to her feet. The world rushed around her, but she focused on the pain and her anger. She tightened her palms on the ropes, and tested the weight of each in her hand, swinging them in front of her like whips.

Whoever came for her would get a nasty surprise. She smiled in the darkness through bloody lips.

Let them come.

* * *

“The tunnel lets out into the basement of an empty building near the wharf. Near the Royal port, actually. I believe it was an officer’s quarters, associated with the Royal Navy. No one has used it since the war,” General Mak said as Zuko rubbed at the back of his neck, exhaustion crawling over him. He stared at the food on the table in front of him. He hadn’t eaten much. Every time he took a bite all he could see was Aiko’s body broken on the floor, and that message the killers had left on the wall for Suki to find.

It turned his stomach.

“Do you think my father had it built?”

“Possibly. I’d heard rumors that Ozai had built several passages out of the palace in case of emergency, but other than the one in the dungeons that he used during the eclipse, I hadn’t heard of anyone finding any others.”

Zuko glanced at Suki, but she was staring at her plate. They hadn’t told anyone about the tunnel Azula had revealed in Zuko’s suite. For some reason, he wanted to keep that information to himself for now. It might come in handy later, but he had the very real fear that Aiko’s killers knew about it as well. He couldn’t take the risk. He’d never be able to sleep in the room again and he knew it.

“And there was no sign of the killers?”

“None,” Mak said regretfully. “They could have disappeared into the city or hopped a ship. There were several that left today. We’re questioning the Harbor Master now, but I doubt we’ll find anything.”

“And the people on the list?”

“Arrested, save a few who seem to have disappeared without a trace. We have troops in the streets searching for them. A message has been sent to the Royal Navy and they’ll be here guarding the island within the next several hours. The palace guards have been fortified with army regulars. The tunnel has been collapsed. Unless the Smoke Demons have an earthbender with them, they’re not getting in here that way again.”

“According to Azula, they _do_ have earthbenders with them,” Zuko said wearily.

Mak started, but then recovered. “Then we’ll have guards placed on the tunnel. On both ends, sire.”

“See to it then and then get some rest. It’s been… It’s been a long day for all of us. A long week,” he said, pushing his plate away. Beside him, Suki did the same. He noticed that she hadn’t touched a bite.

She was looking pale, shadows beneath her eyes that had nothing to do with her exhaustion. She’d been looking ghostly since they’d taken Aiko’s body to the hospital wing.

He’d tried to get her to take a break, to sleep, eat, drink, but there was a steely resolve in her gaze and she had refused to leave him. Her hand hadn’t strayed from her sword longer than a few seconds. She was jumping at small sounds and glaring at anyone who came within five feet of him.

She’d even insisted that the servant who’d brought them their food had eaten a bite of everything himself. When he hadn’t fallen down dead after a half an hour, she had allowed him to eat. It was good to know that he wasn’t going to be poisoned by his own kitchen staff, but he hadn’t eaten much anyway, despite that.

“You should rest too, Lord Zuko,” Mak said and then said gently to Suki. “I’m sorry about Aiko.”

“Thank you,” Suki mumbled, as if she hadn’t really understood him, but was just going through the motions, through what was expected of her.

She hadn’t cried yet.

Zuko’s heart ached for her. She had never lost a soldier before, and Aiko had been so much more than that to her. She’d been her sister, her friend. Zuko felt flames threatening his hands and curled his fingers into his palms. His emotions were raw right now. No need to lose control of his firebending.

What he needed was some peace and quiet. A few hours sleep and a moment to breathe.

“Meet me here at dawn,” Zuko said, nodding at Mak, who bowed at him, then at Suki. Then Mak was gone, leaving Zuko and Suki alone in the room. “Suki–”

No sooner had the words left him did the door open with a cautious knock. “Sire?”

“Yes, Fen?”

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Fen’s gaze flicked to Suki, who had risen, her sword half out of her scabbard. She seemed to be shaking. Fen stopped, swallowing hard.

Zuko touched Suki’s shoulder, but she didn’t relax. She didn’t even seem to be staring at Fen, but somewhere in the middle distance, her lips thinned out to a flat line. “Yes. Send someone to the Captain’s quarters. Get her a change of clothing for the morning, nightclothes and her toiletries. Bring it back here. Go to my suite and get me the same thing. I also want the two swords on the stand in the corner, you know the ones?”

“Yes. Are you not sleeping in your suite tonight?”

“I think it’s better if I’m not where anyone expects me to be, don’t you?” he said grimly and then gestured for him to leave. He knew that Fen would carry out his orders quickly.

Suki turned away the moment Fen left, pacing the dining room, staring out the windows at the rain-washed landscape. She had her closed fan out and was tapping it against her thigh. Her posture was stiff and unyielding.

He wanted to go to her, wrap her up in his arms and tell her that everything was going to be okay, but he knew that she wasn’t ready for that yet. That she felt too exposed here, too raw from the day’s events. He knew how she felt. This was no place to break down and he had a feeling that was what she needed.

In short order, Fen was back, silently handing him the two packs and the swords, casting a furtive glance at Suki. Zuko ordered his secretary to get some sleep, and then closed the door on him. He strapped the swords to his back, then shouldered the bags and walked over to Suki, grasping her hand.

She jumped, as if she hadn’t realized he was standing there. That wasn’t like her.

“Zuko?”

“Hey… You in there?”

“What? I’m… I… I was. What are you doing?” she said, looking lost. He’d never seen her like this before. She’d been so driven in the wake of Aiko’s death, so focused as she’d analyzed the crime scene, but the life had been drained out of her in the last few hours. He realized, with a visceral punch to the guts, that she had gone into shock.

“Come on, I need you to follow me.”

“Follow you? Where?”

“Just follow me, baby. I’m taking us some place safe,” he said soothingly, rubbing her hands. He kissed the backs of her fingers and she took a trembling breath. “Okay?”

“Okay…”

He grasped her hand and led her out the door. They passed several soldiers, but they just nodded at him and let him pass. Soon they’d passed out of the heavily populated section of the palace and into the west wing. There were soldiers here too, but Zuko got around them by ducking into rooms, waiting for them to pass and then coming back out. All while Suki moved behind him silently.

He was starting to get worried. Suki was never passive like this.

Finally he got them to the room he’d been looking for; the library containing the rare and ancient scrolls the Royal Family had collected over the centuries. It was a small room, lined with shelves filled with scrolls. A door in the corner lead to a small bathing chamber with a tiny shower in it. As a child he’d never questioned why there was a bathroom in a library, having needed it more than once, but now he could only guess that the room itself hadn’t always been a library.

Over the years the palace’s configurations had been changed, through the whims of each Fire Lord. He guessed that this room had been chosen simply because neither room had windows. Sunlight would be damaging to the old ink, after all.

He looked around the room. A desk sat in the corner and a large worn sofa took up the other side of the room. The smells of the old parchment filled the air. It hadn’t changed much since he was a child, when he’d spent hours at a time here, hiding from Azula. His sister hadn’t had much interest in ancient scrolls and had assumed that he wouldn’t have either. She’d never found his hiding place, his safe place.

It was the only place he could think of that still felt safe. And he just needed to feel safe, for one damned minute.

The moment they entered, he shut the door and locked it, then grabbed the chair out from behind the desk, wedging it up beneath the door handle. The only way anyone was getting into this room was through fire and sheer brute force. At least they’d have ample warning.

That done, he took off the packs, set them aside along with his swords, and turned to Suki, who was staring around the room like she had no idea how she’d gotten there.

“Suki? Are you with me?”

She blinked and nodded at him. “Yes. What is this place?”

“Library. There’s no windows, and a bathing chamber over there. I’ve barricaded the door. We avoided all the soldiers. Literally no one knows where we are right now. We’re safe.”

“Are we?” Suki’s voice was small. Too small.

“Yes,” he said forcefully, because he needed to believe that too. Most of all, he needed _her_ to be safe. The message written in blood on the wall, the warning, the threat, the _promise_ , flashed in his mind. He wouldn’t let anyone harm her. No matter what. He cupped her face, staring into her eyes. “We’ll be safe here as long as we need. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

That seemed to bring her back to herself. She stared at him with a haunted expression. “I’m supposed to protect you, not the other way around.”

“I think we both know that that doesn’t quite work with us. How about we take turns? Right now it’s my turn to take care of you, baby. You’re hurting and you’re in shock. Let me take care of you.”

“I’m fine,” she said, her voice breaking, tears in her voice.

“No, you’re not,” he said and pulled her into his arms. She went willingly, shuddering into his body, her fingers fisting in his shirt as she clung to him.

“I’m scared,” she said and then broke out into a desperate sob, the breakdown she’d been holding back flooding out of her in an instant. Zuko held her tight and he squeezed his eyes shut, feeling tears burning there too.

“Me too,” he admitted into her neck, holding her as she cried for her fallen friend. “Me too, baby.”

* * *

The knotted end of the rope blasted the first person through the door in the face, breaking his nose and sending him stumbling back from the doorway with a sharp cry. Mai sprang forward, catching him in the chest with a flying kick. He bowled over backward, taking two of his compatriots with him.

Mai leaped over them in a somersault, rolling on the floor and coming up on her feet, only to find herself surrounded by ten masked figures. They were all wearing the Smoke Demons insignia on their black robes.

Her eyebrows lifted.

Months of trying to excavate the intricate layers of the terrorist cell, and somehow she’d missed the part where they had a trained force like this at their command. She’d thought the organization was made up of individual agents, all working separately under the leaders orders, not a unified fighting unit, which these people seemed to be. Fear sunk deep into her guts. That meant the merchant hadn’t been lying. The Smoke Demons had an army…and she had had no idea.

“All this for me? I’m flattered,” she drawled in a bored tone, trying to ignore the pounding in her skull and the way her injured arm was shaking. She gripped the ropes tighter and stared from one shocked face to another, trying to recognize someone in the crowd, but they were all strangers beneath their masks. “So who’s first?”

She waited with bated breath. There was no way in hell she was getting out of here alive… No way, but she wasn’t going to go down without a fight. She’d make sure of that.

One of the masked men moved toward her and she reacted immediately, whipping out the rope like a lasso. It blasted him across the face with a loud smack, but she didn’t stop to see what he did. She was already turning in a circle, the ropes lashing out like whips. Others were moving now, coming at her from all sides.

She hit them in the face, the ribs, searching for a way out of the small room. There had to be a way out. If she could just run…get word to Zuko…

One of the men caught a rope in his hand as it swung his way. He wrapped his hand around it and tugged with a hard jerk that sent her stumbling toward him. She used her momentum to launch herself at him.

The kick took him in the jaw, hard enough that she heard bone crunch. He fell to his knees, screeching in agony and she let go of the rope. She wrapped the other rope around her fist and let out a breath, watching the men circling her, waiting for one of them to come at her again.

The first man that did got punched in the face with her rope-wrapped fist, the rough hemp tearing a chunk of his nose out. She jabbed her elbow back into another man’s sternum and spun just in time to bring her boot up into someone’s crotch.

He fell with a wheeze and she sent her elbow crashing down onto his back, driving him in the floor. She’d already spotted the sword on his waist and snatched it out of the scabbard with a lightning-quick motion.

The next man who came at her got a sword in his throat and he died strangling to death on steel and his own blood. She put a boot into his middle and shoved him off of the blade. As he fell, she saw a flash of cold steel behind her and flicked the bloody blade behind her, blocking the overhand swing that would have chopped through her skull.

She shoved his blade back with a grunt. A foot caught her in the small of the back and she cried out, stumbling forward again, only to find herself fending off a series of sword swings that turned her hand numb and made pain travel up her arm.

They seemed to come at her from all sides, harrying her, keeping her moving across the room. She had the sense that they were playing with her, and it just pissed her off.

Someone grabbed her hair, and she whipped around, leaving a large hunk of her hair in his hand and blood trickling from her scalp. She chopped downward, taking off the man’s hand with a spray of blood that caught her in the face.

The man screamed and she kicked him in the face, turning on her next attacker.

“Enough of this,” a bellowing voice, a rough as gravel, shouted over the sounds of the fight. “Take her now.”

She didn’t know where the voice was coming from, but she wanted to put a sword through him. She satisfied herself with stabbing one of them through the stomach and ramming him into one of his masked friends. The sword was buried too deep to pull out, but she didn’t care. She headbutted him and tore an ornamental dagger from his belt.

She turned and let it fly, satisfied at the strangled cry that followed as it hit its mark. She was already moving though, tightening the last bit of rope between her hands. She ran at the nearest assailant, wrapping the rope around his neck and dragging him backward.

He strangled, fighting her as she twisted in a circle. He dug his feet in, trying to slip his fingers beneath the rope, but she pulled it tighter.

“One step closer and I’ll kill him!”

“Kill him, Mai. I do so love watching you work,” a woman’s voice said from the back of the crowd. The voice was familiar, though she hadn’t heard it in a long time. “Why do you think I had you recruited? Your people skills?”

Mai’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

“Stop fighting and I’ll tell you every little thing that you’ve been trying to find out about my little organization for the last two years.”

Her mouth went dry as she tightened the rope on the Smoke Demons’ neck. Was this the leader the of the Smoke Demons? The person behind it all? “Did you know the whole time?”

“That you weren’t really trying to take down the Fire Lord? Of course I did,” the woman said, stepping out from behind a large man who seemed intent on protecting her. The woman was cloaked, her face in shadows. The sleeve of her robe was gone, showing a blood-soaked bandage on her shoulder. She’d been injured recently, but it didn’t look serious. “Drop him. Let’s talk, dearie. I have so much to tell you.”

“If I drop him I’m dead.”

“Mai, if I wanted you dead, you would have died in that alley after my boys knocked you unconscious. Or a thousand other times. Your life has _always_ been in my hands, sweetie pie, so you can either go down the hard way or the easy way. Your choice.”

“Hard way,” Mai said, grabbing the man’s head and twisting with all of her might. His neck snapped and he dropped. As he did, she reached for her boot, where the shirshu darts were still in their sheath on her ankle.

She pulled out two, tossing them both as someone tackled her from behind. She fell against the dead man, and skinned her chin on the rough concrete floor. A knee was forced into her back as someone grabbed her wrist and twisted her arms behind her.

“FUCK YOU!” she snarled as a hand wound around her hair and pulled her head back. She was forced to look at the blood-soaked slippers of the woman who had been speaking. The muscled giant who had been protecting the woman had fallen to the floor in a paralyzed heap, the darts sticking out of his thick forearms. The woman was leaning over him, checking his pulse.

“Shirshu poison?” she asked lightly, caressing the man’s face.

“He’ll live. Unfortunately,” Mai said as the hand in her hair pulled hard enough to put tears in her eyes.  

“Good, because if you’d killed my son I’d be forced to change my plans and murder you where you stand. Well, where you lie, I suppose,” the woman said, standing with a graceful motion. She gestured to the man holding her down with two fingers. “Get her up and bring her to me. Don’t be gentle.”

The woman turned on her heel and marched out of the little room, and down a corridor, her footsteps echoing. The Smoke Demon holding her down crammed her face painfully into the floor, grinding his knee into her spine. She tried to buck him off, but a fist came down on the back of her skull.

She immediately slipped into a darkness that spun around her in hot waves that seemed to brighten and dim with each beat of her heart.

After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, she came back to herself, only to find that she was being dragged between two Smoke Demons. Her boots were missing. They’d taken the shirshu darts. She was weaponless.

Her black hair straggled into her face as rough hands grasped her, dragging her along a dusty stone floor, scraping her knees on the uneven surface. The air smelled of blood—probably her own—machine oil, coal, fire, and mildew. The air echoed as voices rose up out of the darkness all around her.

“Traitor,” someone hissed and spat on her.

 _I’m going to kill whoever did that_ , Mai thought, glaring at them all through her hair as she was pulled into the middle of what looked like a warehouse and tossed her down into a battered heap. She struggled to get up, and a heavy boot came down on her back, keeping her in place.

“She’s down, mother,” a voice said behind her.

“Good, son,” the woman said, stepping out from behind a large machine. The machine look familiar, but Mai was finding it hard to focus on anything at the moment. Turning her head made everything swim in front of her eyes and the earth seemed to be attempting to turn upside down on her. She dug her fingers in to the stone.

_Concentrate, dammit._

“Surely you knew this day would come, Mai,” the woman was saying, pacing back and forth in front of her.

“It was a possibility,” she mumbled and then grinned. “Thought I’d take a few more of you assholes down with me though. But hey, the night is still young.”

The woman laughed. “I like you, Mai. I do. You like to pretend you don’t care about anything, but look at you. Fighting like a hellion for what you believe in. We’re a lot alike. Why do you think I allowed you to live this long, especially after I found out you were working against me? Instead of ordering you killed, I had you fed unimportant bits of information. So you got a few names, a few of my many pawns? Yukishima? That painted Earth Kingdom bitch I blackmailed? All of them expendable. I would have killed them myself eventually, but you took care of so many on my kill list for me.”

Mai’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“All those men and women you killed? You were just doing my dirty work for me, sweetie,” the woman said and laughed. “You didn’t kill anyone I didn’t want you to kill. You’ve been my favorite little weapon. And recruiting Princess Azula? I couldn’t have done that without you! Thank you so much for tracking her down and convincing her to join up.”

“She wasn’t loyal to you either.”

“I know,” the woman pouted. “And to be honest, that really surprised me. Given their history and her less than stellar mental stateI thought for sure she’d leap at the chance to take out her brother to get the throne back. The fact that she was faking the whole time, why that’s just… _hurtful._ Rude, really. I hate it when my pawns don’t play my game. I like things to run smoothly and problems to resolve themselves.  I mean, I had _no_ intention of _actually_ giving her the throne. I just needed her to kill Zuko for me. If she’d succeeded the Fire Nation would have had her killed for her crimes, leaving Iroh as the only remaining heir. If she’d failed… Well, I had agents in the palace to ensure she didn’t live out the night.”

“But she got away.”

The woman’s voice turned icy. “Annoyingly yes. But I’m having the airship she, her boy toy and Iroh left in tracked down at this very moment. She has to die, and I can’t complete my plans without Iroh. This is all for _him,_ after all.”

“What do you want with Iroh?” she asked, confused.

“Sweetie pie, you can’t have a wedding without a groom!” the woman said in a misty voice.

“You want to _marry_ Iroh? You’re doing all this…just to marry _IROH?!_ ” Mai scoffed. The woman turned on her, a smile on her red-lipped mouth beneath the shadows of her hood.

“He should have been mine from the start,” the woman said, lowering the hood.

Mai’s eyes widened, her mouth opening in shock. “You!?”

Lady Shura smiled at her and gave a girlish giggle, tossing her hair with one hand. “Don’t look so shocked, darling. I’m not just a pretty face, after all. It’s amazing what people will tell you when they think you’re nothing but a brainless slut. No one would suspect that trampy Lady Shura was capable of such terrible acts.”

“I wouldn’t say that. I’ve seen your fashion sense,” Mai drawled, making Lady Shura’s face go purple.

“That _mouth._ You’re almost as bad as that little slut Zuko’s fucking now,” Shura said through her teeth. She glanced up at the person holding Mai down, flicking her chin at him. With a grunt, he hauled Mai to her feet. The world upended on her and she fought the urge to throw up as her stomach rebelled. She swallowed the impulse, tasting the acid in her mouth now. She wouldn’t give Shura the satisfaction. “Doesn’t that sting, knowing you’ve been replaced by some peasant dirt girl?”

Mai spat blood onto the ground at Shura’s feet. “You’d know better than I would. Everyone knows Iroh wanted nothing to do with you thirty years ago and that Ozai was just using you for a bedwarmer after his wife disappeared. And Zuko? I hear he had you kicked out of his suite in disgust. Several times. You’re old enough to be his mother. That’s sick.”

Shura slapped her across the face hard enough to crack her jaw. Mai worked it up and down, blinking back the water in her eyes as Shura grabbed her hair and tugged her forward. The Smoke Demon—one of Shura’s six sons, who were all notoriously tall and as muscled as oxes—held her arms behind her back.

“I ought to kill you, Mai. But I’m not going to. You see, I’ve kept you alive for one specific reason: I need you to deliver a message to Zuko. I’m tired of hiding, pretending to be something I’m not.”

“Sane?”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP,” Shura snarled and slapped her again. “I want you to tell the boy that I have four airships and an army and that I’m coming to murder him and every last person in the palace. I want him to surrender to me, and if he doesn’t, then I’m going to take the palace by force. And if I have to do that, I’m going to capture his darling little Suki, and I’m going to give her to my boys. My boys already killed one of Suki’s little Kyoshi bitches today, but they’re restless. They want a plaything, a toy they can keep for months and months. They’ve been so good for mommy, that I’m inclined to give them one. Do you understand what I mean, Mai?”

Mai swallowed, sure she was going to throw up now. “You’re crazy.”

“I’m not crazy. I just want what should have been mine from the start. I’m tired of being overlooked and dismissed. I want the world to know that I’m a threat. That the world can’t chew me up and spit me out like I’m worthless. I won’t be ignored any longer. The throne will be mine. And Iroh with it.”

“He’ll never marry you.”

“He will. He just needs the proper motivation,” Shura said and then kissed her on the cheek, leaving the red imprint of her lipstick. Mai shuddered away from her. “I’m sure I’ll think of something. I always do. Bag her.”

“Wait!”

But it was too late. A black bag came down over her head and she was tied and trussed again, and then slung over someone’s shoulder. She didn’t know where they were going, but soon they were outside, the rain washing the blood off of her and soaking her to the bone. She struggled to get free, but the man carrying her was too strong. It wasn’t long before she was unceremoniously dumped to the ground. She landed on the ground with a splash, the world spinning around her.

“Where am I?”

“Remember what mother said,” one of Shura’s sons said and then kicked her down a short incline. She rolled to a painful stop, her bound hands twisted beneath her, the wound in her arm throbbing, blood drenching her arm in a hot gush. After a few minutes, she heard a woman scream. Footsteps rushed toward her. Someone whipped the hood off of her head, and she found herself staring at the shocked faces of civilians.

“Miss? Are you okay? Who did this to you?” the woman crouched before her exclaimed, but Mai ignored her.

“I need to get to the Fire Lord! NOW!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't miss "Comfort", a smutty and emotional cut scene from this chapter. I've posted it as a stand-alone.


	23. Chapter 23

“Where is she _?_ ” Zuko demanded, half-running through the corridors, Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors flanking him on either side. Fen started, pointing ahead with one trembling finger.

“The healing ward, sire! She was brought to the entrance of the Caldera an hour ago.”

“She should have been brought to me immediately!” he barked as hurried along backward in front of him.

“I’m sorry, sire! With the security matters and all… They had to seek permission and you were nowhere to be found! I had to find General Mak to give the order and…”

Zuko glanced guiltily at Suki, who bit down on her lower lip. They’d slept a lot longer than they’d meant to in the old library. Days of little to no sleep and constant stress had started to take their toll, he supposed. Still, it was no excuse.

Mai had been attacked and he had no idea why.

“How is she?”

“I don’t know. Nam-Kyu is–” Fen started, but Zuko brushed him aside, picking up his pace as worry gnawed at his gut. He felt Suki’s presence beside him, and it reassured and comforted him, but did nothing to stop the cavalcade of questions that needed answering. He felt sick to his stomach. What had they done to Mai?

The guards at the healing ward doors parted for him unquestioningly, and he lead the Warriors into the outer chamber, just in time to see a guard go flying across the room. The man hit the floor, rolled and came to a battered stop in the corner, leaving the wild, bloodied attacker standing livid in the doorway of one of the wings.

“Mai!” he exclaimed in surprise, pulling up short as he took in the sight of the lithe, angry woman, who was surrounded by healers and guards, some of whom looked as beat up as the woman they were trying to subdue.

Mai’s inky black hair was matted with blood on one side from a head wound that hadn’t been treated yet. There was a dirty bandage on her left bicep, and dried blood all down her left side. Her lip was bleeding, and her face was bruising purple across her right cheek. She seemed to be having trouble focusing too, because when she turned to him, she squinted, blinked and turned an ashen gray color.

“Zuko?”

He approached her slowly, holding out his hands like he would to an injured animal. “Mai, it’s okay… They’re not trying to hurt you.”

“She’s got a concussion,” Nam-Kyu spoke up from the corner, looking more than slightly put-out by the ruckus in her ward. “She insisted on seeing you before letting us patch her up, and when I tried to make her sit down… _Well_ _._ ” The old woman made an exasperated gesture in Mai’s direction, causing Mai to glare at her from beneath her blood-clumped fringe.

“Stand down. She’s no threat to me,” Zuko ordered the guards, who all immediately dropped out of defensive stances and backed up, leaving him space to approach her. Suki followed, gesturing to the other Warriors to clear the room of guards.

He ignored the activity behind him though, focusing on Mai’s battered face and the determination in her slightly unfocused eyes. “What happened, Mai?”

Mai glanced around and then let out a breath, drawing herself up painfully. “Not here. It’s too important.”

“A private room then. She needs to sit down before she falls down,” Nam-Kyu said, gesturing to the other healers, but Mai backed up a step.

“Mai, please? You need to sit down and you’re still bleeding,” Suki said gently

“That doesn’t matter right now.”

“Well, it matters to _me._ You either allow Nam-Kyu to see to your wounds while we talk, or I’ll have her sedate you and we can discuss it when you wake up tomorrow. Your choice.”

Mai made a disgusted noise in her throat and then rolled her eyes. “Fine. Just Nam-Kyu, you and Suki. No one else.”

“Good. Ladies? Guard the doors. Do not let anyone in,” Zuko said to the Warriors, who nodded and flanked him again. Mai started toward the door, stumbled and barely caught herself on a chair. Zuko rushed forward and put his shoulder beneath her arm while Suki took her other side.

Mai glanced at the both of them and mumbled, “Thank you.”

“What did they do to you?” Suki asked softly, a haunted edge in her voice. No doubt she was thinking about Aiko. Zuko couldn’t get her out of his mind as Nam-Kyu led them through the door to one of the wards—the same one where Ty Lee was being kept, he noted.

Aiko, Suki, Ty Lee, Sokka, and now Mai. All people he cared about who had been hurt trying to protect him. Aiko had paid with her life, Ty Lee had almost died, and Mai looked like she was going to pass out any moment.

He was tired of watching his friends being hurt because of him. This had to stop.

Nam-Kyu lead them into the nearest room and gestured for he and Suki to help Mai down onto one of the beds. She refused to lie down though, as Nam-Kyu closed the door and got out an assortment of supplies.

They watched as the old healer pulled up a stool, checked Mai’s pupils and then probed the bloody goose-egg on her temple. “Ooh, that’s nasty. Someone hit you good, didn’t they?”

“That’s putting it pretty mildly,” Mai said, and glanced up at Zuko, who was standing against the wall, his lips pressed to a thin line. He had a million questions, but he was more worried about her than getting answers at the moment.

“You still trust the Kyoshi Warriors to guard you?” Mai asked, startling him. He glanced at Suki, who paled beneath her makeup.

“We…we found the mole,” he stuttered. “It was…”

“Aiko. The Smoke Demons murdered her,” Suki said bluntly, her jaw hard as Mai turned shocked eyes on her.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Not as sorry as I am,” Zuko said, putting his hand on Suki’s shoulder and squeezing. Mai swallowed and turned her attention on the healer pushing and prodding at her.

“You have a concussion, but it’s stopped bleeding and I don’t think it’ll kill you. You’ll need stitches though. What happened here?” Nam-Kyu asked, peeling back the crusted, make-shift bandage on Mai’s arm, which looked like it been made out of her sleeve.

“Arrow.”

Beside him, Suki hit her fist against the wall. “Those bastards.”

“Who removed it?” Nam-Kyu asked gently.

“I don’t know. I woke up tied up in a dark room. The arrow was gone, I was bleeding and concussed and pissed off. When I got out, I didn’t stop to ask.”

“Sarcasm will get you sedated,” Nam-Kyu mumbled, probing the wound with some sort of metal instrument. “And lucky for you, there doesn’t appear to be any wood slivers left in the wound, or the arrowhead. Gonna take a lot of stitches though, but I should be able to close it.”

“Just do it,” Mai said, wincing as the woman probed the ragged edges of the wound.

“What happened, Mai?” he asked, tearing his eyes away from the wound, and the lurid red blood soaking her whole arm.

“The Smoke Demons. They found out I was a double agent. No, that’s not accurate… They knew I was a double agent the whole time, Zuko. All this time, I’ve been working to uncover the truth and they’ve been playing me, feeding me the information they wanted me to know. Every single person I uncovered was part of their plan. They used me to recruit Azula and they used me to kill the Demons they wanted put down for their own safety. I was their assassin and I didn’t even know it.”

The bitterness and anger rolling off of Mai was palpable.

“They told you that?” Suki asked as Mai looked up at her and then laughed.

“Told…gloated. Same thing,” Mai said and then winced as the healer cleaned the outside of her wound.

“Tell us what happened. From the beginning,” Zuko said, rubbing his face. He suddenly felt exhausted, despite the rest he’d managed to steal with Suki.

“After I left here yesterday, I was heading to a meeting with this merchant who had turned informant for me. He’d harbored a few high level Demons. He said he had more information that he’d uncovered about the leaders of the Smoke Demons.”

“He didn’t show up?”

“Oh, he did. And they shot him full of arrows from the rooftop when he tried to warn me to run. I killed the archer and then made the mistake of assuming he didn’t bring a friend. As soon as I got out into the open, another archer shot at me. Got me in the arm. He dropped down into the alley. We fought and he knocked me out.” She gestured to the bloody lump on her forehead. “I woke up in a little room in a warehouse. They’d tied me up and removed the arrow and my daggers. I managed to get my hands and legs free and when they came for me, I used the ropes and the shirshu darts they didn’t know I had on me. I think I killed a few of them. I don’t know.”

“You didn’t get away.”

“Obviously not,” she said bitterly as Nam-Kyu started to stitch up her arm. “There were too many of them. Trained to work as a unit. I surprised them, but they were still too organized, which just proves that I didn’t learn a damned thing that they didn’t want me to know. They’re an army.”

“How many men?”

“I don’t know,” she said regretfully. “A lot, I think.”

“Damn. If you were outnumbered, how did you get out of there?”

“Their leader let me go.”

Zuko pushed himself off of the wall, his heart leaping. “You saw the leader?”

Mai tilted her head back a little, working her jaw up and down for a moment. “Oh, yeah. We got real up close and personal, Lady Shura, and I.”

Her words hung in the air for a long moment. Nam-Kyu stopped mid-stitch, her startled gaze flicking to Mai’s face. Zuko stared at her too, unsure he’d heard her right, because that didn’t make sense. His brain refused to process it. It was Suki who broke the silence, with a disbelieving laugh that echoed.

“I’m sorry, did you say…Lady _Shura?”_

“Trust me, if I hadn’t seen her with my own two eyes, I’d be just as skeptical,” Mai said sourly.

Zuko’s head spun. Lady Shura, the woman who had been trying to get into his bed for the past year was behind the Smoke Demons? He could hardly believe it of the woman. He hadn’t credited her with the brains for it, if he was totally honest with himself. She’d always seemed desperate to him, a little ridiculous, a little sad, but not a threat of any kind.

Certainly he hadn’t thought her possible of building a terrorist organization beneath his very nose.

“Are you _sure?_ ”

“She’s behind the whole thing, Zuko. She told me everything. What she wants, what she’s planning. She’s got an army, airships. She’s planning on attacking you, and for some reason she let me live so that I could tell you that.”

“Okay, start at the beginning. I’m…I’m confused.”

Mai pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment, then looked up at him. “I think I was getting close to the actual truth, not something they had fed to me. My informant had told me that the people behind the Smoke Demons were brothers, remember?”

“Yes.”

“My informant was going to give me their identities. I think it’s pretty obvious that they were talking about Lady Shura’s sons, who were there in the warehouse with her. They’re Shura’s enforcers. She gives the orders, they make it happen. Everything must go through them, layer after layer. I was just scratching the surface.”

“No wonder all of the Smoke Demons are afraid of talking. Shura’s four sons are basically brutes. Quang and Fang  were arrested by the city watch on suspected charges of assault and battery. It was a scandal a few years ago, but she bailed them out, remember?” Suki said.

Zuko nodded and then stopped. “One of them was in trouble over a girl once, do you remember? I was a kid at the time, but there was a lot of talk… It was the youngest, I think. Li-Shang Junior?”

Mai nodded. “It was a tavern girl. She said he’d raped her and there were all kinds of rumors about him that just stopped after a while. I heard Shura paid the girl off.”

“That’s _disgusting_ ,” Suki said, her lip curling.

“That’s the so-called nobility for you. There’s no scandal they can’t buy their way out of,” Nam-Kyu piped up as she stitched Mai’s arm. She glanced up at Zuko. “Present company excluded.”

“Thanks,” Zuko said dryly and then focused on Mai again. “Okay, so…Shura’s behind the Smoke Demons, which I’m still processing… Did she say _why_ she’s doing this?”

Mai closed her eyes for a moment, took a breath and then looked back up at him. “You’re not going to believe this, but…she wants to marry Iroh.”

It was Zuko’s turn to burst out laughing. “She wants to _what?_ ”

“Marry your uncle.”

“And how in the hell does she think killing me will accomplish that?”

“I didn’t really have a chance to ask her, Zuko,” Mai snapped. “I get the feeling Azula’s being a double agent surprised her, and it messed up her plans. She really thought your sister wanted to kill you.”

“Well, it’s not like we don’t have a history,” he snorted. “I think Azula and I were both just as surprised that she didn’t. So what was her plan?”

“I don’t know. I know she promised Azula that she would put her on the throne if she killed you, but Azula and I suspected that that was a lie, and that they’d assassinate Azula afterward, or at the very least, make sure that the Fire Nation put her to death or imprisoned her for killing the Fire Lord.”

“Leaving Iroh as the rightful heir to the throne,” Suki said softly.

Zuko rubbed at his eyes. “Okay, so she gets Azula to kill me, someone to kill Azula, and that leaves my uncle on the throne… But how does she get Iroh to marry her?”

“Zuko, you’ve found her naked in your bed on more than one occasion. How do you _think_ she’s going to get Iroh to marry her?” Suki spoke up.

Zuko stopped and made a face. “Oh. Eww. So she puts Iroh on the throne, and gets him to marry her…and she, what? Is the Fire Lady?”

“She becomes the most powerful woman in the Fire Nation and gets the man she always wanted,” Suki said, crossing her arms over her chest. “But…why go through the trouble of marrying Iroh in the first place? Why not kill off everyone in the Royal line and just seize the throne?”

“She can’t,” Zuko said, rubbing his stubbled face. “Her rule wouldn’t be legitimate. Fire Nation law does not recognize usurpers to the crown. It was nearly a problem when I took the throne from Azula, but since I was still within the lineage, and since my father never officially disinherited me, my claim was declared legitimate. If Shura took the throne in a coup, legally, no one in the Fire Nation would have to bow to her. It would cause a civil war.”

“So if she marries Iroh?”

“That puts her in line and even if Uncle dies, as his spouse, her claim will be legitimate. The throne would be hers and anyone protesting would have to go against the might of the crown. She could command the whole of the Royal Forces to defend her and they’d have to.”

Suki cursed under her breath. “No wonder she wants Iroh to marry her then. Didn’t she and Iroh have a thing before he married your aunt?”

“Not just your uncle. Your father too. Everyone knows they had an affair and that Ozai ended it,” Mai said.

“You rejected her too, actually. She’s been trying for months to seduce you, you know,” Suki said seriously. Zuko stared at her, and then Mai.

He felt stunned and sickened. “Okay, but she’s also been planning to kill me for months, so why the hell did she try to seduce me?”

“Simplicity?” Nam-Kyu piped up from her work on Mai’s arm. “Why kill you when she can marry you instead and cut out the middleman? Sure, Iroh would be a trophy, but why bother with the rest if you can take a shortcut? That woman has always wanted money and power. She married Lord Li-Shang because he was rich, owned half of the northern islands and because he needed a cover.”

“Cover for what?” Mai, Suki, and Zuko asked in unison.

“Oh, I don’t like to gossip, but everyone knows that Lord Li-Shang has a taste for men, and it seems like Shura didn’t mind so much, so long as she got to spend his money, and as long as she provided him with some heirs. Of course, if you believe the rumors, none of those boys are Li-Shang’s. Shura’s never been one to sleep alone.”

“Lord Li-Shang died years ago, though.”

“Under mysterious circumstances,” Nam-Kyu said. “Shura’s been burning through the money ever since. She’s had to sell off half of the estate just to keep her in hair dye and jewelery.”

“For someone who doesn’t like to gossip, you sure know all of the juiciest stories, Nam-Kyu,” Suki drawled. The old woman looked up at her and pulled a grin that wrinkled the corners of her gimlet eyes.

“You hear a lot of things in the healing ward, dear. You’d be surprised what secrets people spill when you’re pulling objects out of orifices that shouldn’t have objects in them.”

“You washed your hands before you started stitching me up, right?” Mai asked in a deadpan tone, making Nam-Kyu chuckle.

“Okay…let me think here…” Zuko said, pacing the room. “Shura’s been planning on taking the throne for a long time, obviously. She used her sons to create the Smoke Demons and they built their organization around fear and secrets and so many levels of agents that even you couldn’t crack them, Mai.”

“Right.”

“Then why infiltrate the Royal Forces?”

“Contingency plans,” Suki suggested. “She’s planned for everything. Or maybe she _is_ planning on a coup as soon as she marries you or Iroh? The Smoke Demons take the heat for murdering her husband, and no one suspects the wife, who now has all the power and all the money. She’s got control of the army, people on the Council loyal to her cause… She’s got everything she wants.”

Zuko stood there in stunned silence for a moment. “Maybe when I rejected her she went with plan B, which was to have Azula assassinate me, which would lead to Iroh getting the throne, but that didn’t work. I’m still alive, and Azula is in hiding with Sokka and they took Iroh with them.”

“That angered her. She wanted Aiko to kill Azula and she didn’t. Osamu had to do it, but he failed. Aiko killed Osamu to stop him from talking, and then Shura had Aiko killed to stop her from talking. Then she revealed herself to Mai, who was close to the truth. Right?”

“Yeah, but why would she reveal herself to Mai now, just to leave her alive in order to warn you that she’s coming for you with an army? Shura’s been working behind the scenes in secret all this time. Why reveal herself? None of us suspected her at all!”

Zuko thought for a moment. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s her last resort. Maybe she thinks she has enough men on her side to take the throne by force. Maybe she’s desperate.”

“Desperate people are dangerous. She’s played her last card by revealing her identity to Mai. She’s going to come at you with everything she has now, Zuko. If she’s openly revealing her intentions then she’s got nothing left,” Suki said softly, a worried edge in his voice.

Zuko glanced at Mai’s battered face, and then at Suki, who was watching him with fear in her eyes. No doubt she was thinking of Aiko, who had died simply because his enemies wanted power and were desperate enough to murder for it.

If they were right, and this was Shura’s last play, then they’d have to be ready for it.

He wasn’t going to let anyone else he cared about suffer because of one woman’s blind ambitions.

* * *

“The Fire Lord has reinforced the guards around the Caldera, mother. He’s got airships patrolling the skies and the army is patrolling the streets of the city now. They’ve taken the Mayor and arrested half of our agents in the army.”

Lady Shura looked up at her eldest son, Lord Kang. “But not the half they don’t know about. Remember, I gave Mai those names. Those men were weak. Let the Fire Lord have them.”

“Be that as it may, it won’t be long before we’re discovered. We’re outnumbered, even with our two airships. What should we do?”

“Kill any guards that come near the warehouse. Dump their bodies in the harbor,” Shura said to her eldest son, with a wave of her hand. “I don’t have time to deal with skirmishes when I’m planning to win this war in one fell swoop.”

“We don’t have the manpower to take them on in a straight battle. There’s no way–”

“There’s always a way. Never doubt me.”

“You should never have revealed yourself. He knows we’re coming now! He knows about us, about you!” Kang protested.

“He knows what I want him to know, darling,” she said sweetly. “When my plans for Azula failed, I knew exactly what I needed to do to get what I wanted. I knew I couldn’t trust her. I knew I’d have to do it myself…”

“So what are we going to do?”

“Don’t worry your handsome head about it. Now go and keep the wolfbats from the door. Mommy’s planning regicide and she need to _concentrate,”_ she snapped, her sweet manner dropping for a moment.

“Yes, Mother,” Kang said grudgingly.

She looked up at her other three boys, Quang, Fang and Li-Shang Junior, as her eldest bowed out of the room to carry out her orders. She stared at them fondly, her greatest achievements. She’d suffered so much to bring them into the world. A marriage of convenience, a string of lovers, and stretch marks on the body she’d sweated and strained to keep as young and supple as she could, even as time had ravaged her. She was still beautiful though. Still worth something in a world that had tried to chew her up and spit her out, in a world that had tried to tell her that she was worthless.

She wasn’t worthless though. She had proven that. All this time and no one had suspected that she’d had the brains in her perfectly coiffed head to bring together the ragged, leaderless remains of the New Ozai Society and turn their hatred for the Harmony Restoration Movement, and Fire Lord Zuko’s reign into a weapon, all while recruiting the dissidents within the very fabric of Zuko’s administration. She’d learned to be ruthless long ago, and it had served her well. She didn’t accept failure.

She’d created demons out of smoke…and she was damned well not going to let a few ruined plans get in the way of her goals. The throne belonged to her. It always had. It was time the world recognized it.  It was time the Fire Lord knew who he was messing with.

“Li-Shang?”

Her youngest son lifted his head. “Yes, Mother?”

“It’s time.”

* * *

“I want even more reinforcements in the streets. Scour the likeliest places a significant number of people could hide in secret. Warehouses, large buildings, ships in the port. I want all of it searched,” Zuko said to Mak, who nodded. “What about the people on the list Mai gave us?”

“Arrested. There are a few we’re still searching for, but we found the bulk of them. Mayor Yukishima is demanding to speak to you personally. He’s been very insistent ever since we raided his house and arrested he and his wife,” Mak said bemusedly. “What shall I tell him?”

“Tell him that I don’t speak to traitors to the throne. Tell him that I will, however, be more than willing to hear what he has to say for himself at his trial. Until then he can cool his heels in prison next to my father,” Zuko said with a half-smile of amusement in Suki’s direction. She returned it, but it faded after a moment as worried gnawed at her gut.

Something wasn’t right. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was. They’d gone over Shura’s actions, trying to make sense of her motivations, her plans, but there were pieces of the puzzle that didn’t fit the narrative. It made Suki’s skin crawl.

She had a feeling Shura had something more planned than a straightforward attack on the palace. Mai had told them that Shura had sent someone after Sokka, Azula and Iroh’s airship, and she couldn’t help worrying about them. She wished she knew where they were heading, so that she could warn them.

Bitterly, she remembered seeing Shura there in the courtyard when they’d taken off in the airship. If only she’d known, or even suspected… Maybe Aiko would still be alive. Maybe Mai wouldn’t be in the healing ward with a concussion and two broken ribs, making Nam-Kyu’s life hell by refusing to rest. If nothing else, she should have realized how wrong it was for Shura to even be in the palace after Zuko had ordered all of the guests to leave. Shura shouldn’t have been there. She’d been too worried about Sokka’s injuries, Ty Lee on death’s door and Zuko’s safety to put the pieces together.

She felt sick to her stomach. She knew something bad was going to happen. She’d underestimated Shura, and the Smoke Demons, before. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Zuko glanced back at her and saw the worried look on her face, which she’d been trying hard not to show all day. Zuko straightened his back and put his hands flat on the table, which was laid out with maps of the palace, the city and the Caldera. It had been another long day, one without answers.

She hated waiting for a battle.

“Is that all?” Zuko asked Mak, who nodded.

“For now, I think. You should rest, sire. It may be a long time before we have some peace around here,” the General said, glancing at Suki with a solemn nod.

She couldn’t help notice that a lot of people, including the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors had been giving her odd looks all day. Not surprising. There had been rumors about her and Zuko for months, after all, and since they’d spent two nights together—one in which they had disappeared together, the rumors seemed to have been confirmed. She might have been annoyed by the knowing looks, if she weren’t so worried about what Shura was planning. She was getting really sick of people’s judgy looks.

“The same to you, General,” Zuko said, clapping him on the shoulder as he left the War Room. As he opened the door, she saw spotted Kikki and Tam standing at attention outside the door. As soon as the door closed again, Zuko turned on her. “What’s wrong?”

She knew from the determination in his face, that there would be no assuaging him.

“I don’t know,” she sighed, walking toward the table and staring at the maps. “I just… I don’t think she’s going to attack us, Zuko. We’re too well defended.”

“You think this is a diversion?”

Suki nodded, eying the map of the palace. “I think she’s smart. She knows how to play games. She sets up pawns, sets up maneuvers and when one fails, she has another one all ready to go into motion. She left Mai alive for a reason.”

“Because she wanted to deliver a message.”

“Partly… But I think she knew that if she killed Mai, you wouldn’t be willing to negotiate. That you wouldn’t trust her.”

Zuko furrowed his brow, and stared at the maps. “Negotiate for what? She doesn’t have anything I want now. If she’d held Mai for ransom… But she _didn’t_.”

Suki pushed her hair back behind her ear. “That’s the problem. I don’t know. It’s just a feeling. I could be wrong.”

“So you think she’s building a trap?”

“Maybe. I can’t see what it is yet, but I just… It’s just a feeling,” she ended lamely, shrugging. Zuko put his hand on her shoulder again.

“If you have a feeling, then I trust it. We’ll just have to be ready for whatever she sends at us,” he said and then turned her. When he drew her into his arms, she didn’t resist him. She felt bone-weary all of a sudden. She thought of the couch in the little library and sleeping in his arms again. She ached for that level of comfort again.

“We really should get some rest,” Zuko said, echoing her thoughts as he breathed into her hair. “Our secret room?”

“Sounds amazing right now. We need clothes though…”

“Damn, I sent Fen with a message to the city watch. I have to wait for the reply, but he should be back soon.”

Suki made a face and then bit down on her lower lip. “You know what, I’ll go get our things. I know what I need from my room anyway. Fen forgot to get me underwear last night.”

Zuko’s brow rose and his eyes shifted down her body. “You’re not wearing underwear right now?”

“Not a stitch.”

“I’d like to see that,” he said, nuzzling her neck. She laughed a little.

“I’ll bet you would. Look, I can run to my room and get my stuff, then stop by your suite and grab your clothing. It’ll take me ten minutes at the most…and then you can investigate the mystery of the missing panties. Or we can wait for Fen to get back, then wait for him to go get our things.”

Zuko shifted, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden. “Is it weird if I don’t want you to leave?”

She smiled up at him and tugged him down for a long, lingering kiss. “It’s not weird. We’ve been pretty attached at the hip ever since the ball.”

“I like being attached to you. Thing are crazy right now, but things make sense when I’m with you,” he said, and kissed her again, cupping her face. Heat sparked in her and she thought of that morning, the way he’d held her. She thought again of the little room and how much she craved the safety of those walls, and the harbor of his warm arms. When she pulled away, it was with a singing heart and a hunger she couldn’t deny.

“Ten minutes,” she promised, though she didn’t want to leave him.

Zuko’s lips thinned out for a moment and then he nodded. “Ten minutes. I’ll be waiting.”

“Don’t you dare leave this room.”

“Not without you,” he promised solemnly, but with a small smile, which sparked the heat within her again. Despite it all, the worry, the danger, the death, he still made her heart ache.

She opened the doors of the War Room, and stepped out, turning to Kikki and Tam. “I’ll be gone for about ten minutes. Please make sure Fire Lord Zu–!”

She felt arms go around her waist, and then she was turned in place to face Zuko, who immediately crushed his mouth to hers. She forgot about where she was, that Kikki and Tam were standing there watching them both. She kissed him back furiously, her arms around his neck, her hands tangling in his long hair as he lifted her up onto her tiptoes.

Her blood hummed, every bit of her was flaming with warmth and light. When he finally set her back down on her feet, she was breathing hard, light-headed and burning like a bonfire.

“I love you. Hurry back,” Zuko said against her lips, and then kissed her forehead. Then he was gone, closing the door of the War Room behind him. She took an unsteady step backward, a thoroughly stupid look on her face.

When she glanced at Kikki, she saw the embarrassed smile on the girl’s face. She looked at Tam, who was twiddling her thumbs and staring at the ceiling.  

“Um… What was I saying?”

“Watch your boyfriend until you get back?” Kikki offered, a cheeky grin breaking out on her face.

“Boyfriend Lord. Yes. Guard him. Ten minutes. Be right back,” she said haltingly, the words tripping over her tongue. She knew her face was red hot beneath her white makeup.

She hurried off down the corridor, heading first toward her room. It didn’t take her long to get there, at a half-run, passing soldiers and guards, who didn’t try to stop her, and instead nodded her past checkpoints.

Once in her room, she tossed clothing into a bag, grabbed another fan from the collection on her wall, and tucked it into her belt. Then she was off again, jogging toward Zuko’s suite. Her feet took the steps two at a time, the way there having been memorized years ago. She could have done it in her sleep.

She couldn’t believe Zuko had kissed her in front of Kikki and Tam like that… Then again, the whole palace knew they were sleeping together by now. What was the sense in hiding it? They’d been doing a poor job of it anyway.

She entered Zuko’s abandoned suite and went straight for the wardrobe in the closet. She pulled out an outfit for the morning and something for him to sleep in. As she was stuffing it into her bag, she felt, rather than heard, something moving behind her.

She dropped the clothing, whipping out her fan and flicking it open just in time to block one of the darts someone had thrown at her. It bounced off the golden metal and clattered to the floor.

Unfortunately, she was too slow to block the other one that landed in her thigh. She immediately fell back against Zuko’s wardrobe, the shirshu dart quivering in her leg. Her fan tipped out of her hands and fell on the ground at her feet, which turned, unable to hold her up as the paralyzing agent in the dart went to work on her nervous system.

She tried and failed to move from her sprawl on the floor as her body betrayed her, the pounding of her heart just making the poison spread more rapidly. Fear widened her eyes as she stared at the man framed in the dark tunnel entrance in the bedroom wall.

“Pretty little painted whore… You’re going to get what’s coming to you,” said the man said, pulling an ugly grin from beneath the shadows of his hood.  


	24. Chapter 24

“DID YOU FIND HER?” Zuko bellowed as he ran up the stairs toward his suite at full speed, passing guardsmen, and servants as he went. Kikki and Tam ran behind him, fans and swords drawn, their feet pounding on the marble.

Fen, dripping with sweat, his face pale, hair unkempt, skidded to a halt at the top of the stairs. He held up his hands as if to stop Zuko, but seemed to think better of it when he saw the look on his face.

“Sire! Wait, there’s–” Fen started as Zuko hit the landing and skidded toward the door. Fen got between him and door though, stopping him.

Fear spiked through him, harder than before, sweat breaking out over his skin as his heart clenched hard in his chest. She had to be okay. She had to be. He wouldn’t accept anything else.

“Move, Fen!” he snarled at his secretary, who cringed, but didn’t move.

“Sire, you need to calm d–”

Zuko grabbed Fen by the front of his shirt, lifting him off of his feet and slamming him back against the door. “I AM CALM!”

“Zuko!” Kikki admonished, but her voice barely pierced through the red haze of anger and fear. Fen’s wide eyes and the fear in them made him shove the man to the side. Fen went skidding across the floor on his side, fetching up against the wall. Tam went to help him up, but Zuko ignored them.

He lifted his fist, found it surrounded by a corona of flames, and punched the heavy wooden doors open with one fiery hammer blow.

The frame splintered, caught fire and banged against the opposite walls. He was through the doorway the next instant, breathing hard, pain quaking up his arm, which he ignored. He looked around the suite, saw the palace guards there, and then spotted Rin in the doorway to his bedroom. Rin’s face was grim, tears streaking her makeup. She was holding something in her trembling hands.

His fear spiked again and he nearly lost his footing, his head spinning.

“Where is she?” he croaked, stumbling toward his bodyguards, pushing men aside to get to them. “Where’s Suki? Is she…? Rin, is she…?”

His voice broke as he clutched Rin’s shoulders. All he could think about was Aiko’s body lying on the floor in a pool of blood. It had been less than thirty minutes since Suki had failed to return. He’d started to panic immediately. Suki was never late, and it shouldn’t have taken her that long to return. He’d known that something was wrong. He’d felt it in his bones.

_I should never have let her go. I should have gone with her, or waited for Fen. Why did I let her go?_

“Zuko, she’s alive,” Rin said, and it was like the world had started spinning again. He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and looked at the Kyoshi Warrior before him.

“She’s okay? Where is she? Let me see her…”

Rin’s eyes filled again and she shook her head. “They took her. Zuko, they took her.”

“What?” He pushed Rin aside and came into the room, his gaze casting about frantically. He spotted the open passageway, with its dark shadows and winding stairs, then saw Chao-Ahn crouched in the corner beside his wardrobe. The doors of the wardrobe were open, and there was a bag of clothing spilling open on the floor, a mix of greens and reds. Suki’s bag.

“Chao-Ahn?”

Her head shot up and she stood, her face a careful mask. “She was here when they took her, sire. We found her bag, one of her fans, and a fully-loaded shirshu dart. It looks like whoever took the Captain got the drop on her.”

Zuko’s eyes went to the fan and the dart in Chao-Ahn’s hands, and then trailed over to the open passageway. “That’s impossible. We have soldiers guarding this passageway. It lets out into the stables. There’s no way someone could get into it without being seen!”

“Qing, Mei Lin and Xiuying are following the passageway right now. We’ve alerted the palace guards. Unless they’ve got a secret way in and out of the Caldera, then there’s no way in hell we’re going to let them get away with this, Zuko,” Chao-Ahn snapped, letting her emotions show. She clamped it down though, lifting her chin.

“Fire Lord Zuko?” He turned around to face the door, and saw Rin, Kikki and Tam standing there in the doorway. Rin was holding a scroll open with both hands.

“What is that?”

“They left a ransom note.”

“WHAT?” He practically ran across the room and snatched it from her fingers. The words made him feel sick to his stomach as he read them out loud.

“Dear Zuko, By now Mai has told you that I’m behind the Smoke Demons. She’s probably told you I have an army and that I’m going to attack you and burn down the palace. Perhaps you think I’m making an empty threat, but I don’t make empty threats, Zuko. I’ve done everything I’ve set out to do I’ve infiltrated your Council, your bodyguards, your army. I used your ex-lover as my personal assassin. My sons know every secret route in and out of your precious protected palace. I could surround you with my forces within the hour if I so chose. But I am not merciless. I will allow you to leave the palace with your life if you acquiesce to my demands.  You will banish and disinherit Azula, pardon every single member of the Smoke Demons, name Iroh as your heir and then abdicate the throne. You will do all of this, publicly announce your intentions, and then await further instructions. Failure to comply with any of my demands will result in the death of that little Earth Kingdom slut you’ve taken into your bed. You have until dawn. If you love her, and we both know that you do, you’ll obey me. Don’t test me, Zuko. I can merciful, but I have been patient long enough. Her life is in your hands. Lady Shura.”

Zuko’s voice choked on the last words, and they thundered in the air like heartbeats. His eyes scanned the scroll again, unable to believe what he’d read.

“We’ll find her, Zuko,” Tam said, putting her hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged her off.

“Shura took her because of me,” he said softly.

“She’s just making threats, Zuko, she won’t–”

Zuko spun in place, shooting a massive fireball at the first object he saw—his bed. It immediately burst into flames, the bed-hangings catching with a hot pop, fire racing along the coverlet and the wooden headboard going up with a _whoosh!_

Zuko stared at the burning bed, at the smoke rising toward the ceiling. He stared at the flames, rage and fear fueling his bending. He let it burn for a long moment, as everyone stared at him, waiting.

“You saw what she did to Aiko. This isn’t a threat,” he said softly, over the cracking of the wood under the heat. “She’ll _kill Suki_ unless I do what she wants. You know she will.”

“Sire, you can’t abdicate the throne!” Fen said, clutching his throat in horror.

Zuko glanced at the note and then back at Fen, a chill running down his spine that was at odds with the fire raging in his soul.

“There’s no other choice to make. Suki is worth more to me than any of this,” Zuko said, gesturing to the room, but encompassing everything, the palace, the crown. It was the truth. He knew he would never live with himself if something happened to Suki because of his actions. He’d already put her in danger just by being with her. If he lost her, none of it meant anything anyway.

“Zuko, are you sure?” Rin whispered, her eyes huge with fear.

Zuko ignored her, turning to face Fen again. “Draw up the official papers, Fen. I’ll sign them within the hour and we’ll announce it to the people before dawn.”

Fen hesitated, looking as if he wanted to talk him out of it, but seemed to think better of it. He closed his mouth, nodded and ducked out of the room, leaving Zuko standing there with the other Kyoshi Warriors and a handful of guards.

He walked over to the burning bed and pulled his arm in a circle, gathering the flames burning there. They danced in his palm, as wild with rage as he felt, the colors deep red and molten gold. He stared into the depths of the flames for what felt like hours, while his bed smoldered, and plans of revenge kindled within him.

* * *

Suki became aware of her surroundings bit by bit. She could hear machinery, an echo, hushed voices. She was blindfolded, her arms bound above her head, a gag stuffed into her mouth and tied so tightly that it was cutting into the corners of her mouth. She shifted, realizing that she could move her limbs now, as the shirshu dart wore off at last. Her feet were free, but bound together. She wasn’t going to be running anywhere, that was for sure.

She focused on the voices around her. There seemed to be a lot of them. And there was a man somewhere in front of her that smelled like blood and body sweat. She recognized the smell. It was the man that had taken her from Zuko’s suite, and, she realized, one of Shura’s sons.

She was in the warehouse that Mai had been beaten in, and there was no question of why she was there.

Anger made her twist in her ropes. She wasn’t going to hang here and let them kill her like they’d done Aiko. She thought of Zuko, of how worried he must have been already, what he must be thinking had happened to her. How had it happened, though? The known passageways in and out of the palace were being heavily guarded. The passageway in and out of Zuko’s suite let out into the stables. Zuko had told Mak about it and he’d posted guards…

How had Shura’s son gotten in and out of the Caldera, past the guards and into Zuko’s suite so easily? He’d knocked her out, so she had no idea how they’d gotten there. _There must be more tunnels,_ she concluded. _There must be another way to get into that tunnel in Zuko’s suite. Either that, or the guards are Shura’s men._

None of those thoughts comforted her and they certainly weren’t going to help her get free. She tried the knots around her wrists, but the rope was pulled too tightly. Her fingers were starting to swell from the restriction and her fingertips were tingling from lack of circulation.

“Stop struggling, damsel,” Shura’s son grunted at her.

 _Damsel? Well, now I’m just pissed off,_ Suki thought, wishing she could glare at her captor, but she couldn’t see anything through the red material tied over her eyes. The rag in her mouth didn’t taste that clean either but try as she might she couldn’t push it out of her mouth with her tongue. It reminded her too much of the time she’d spent at the Boiling Rock, a teenage girl, alone and scared. She didn’t like those memories. It made fear sweat break out over her skin and nausea swirl in her stomach.

_When I get out of here, I’m going to fucking murder each and every one of these bastards._

“She’s awake?” a feminine voice suddenly called out jovially, the sound of heels clacking on the wooden floor echoing in the warehouse. “Oh, lovely! Darling, please take off her blindfold. There’s no sense in hiding. The Captain already knows who we are, after all!”

Shura’s son got up from his chair with a creaking noise and approached her with heavy footsteps. She tried to jerk away when he ripped off her blindfold, taking a hank of her hair with it. The light was nearly blinding, but she blinked back tears of pain, wincing as she caught sight of Shura’s son grinning at her with a wide smile. She was sure that he was Li-Shang, the baby of the family.

His face was a mass of bruises, and a nose that looked like it had been shattered by something blunt. His eyes were dark and hungry. He walked around behind her and grasped her hips, pushing her forward. She felt like throwing up as she felt him press against her back. Her whole body cringed at the sensation.

Ignoring her revulsion, she focused instead on the woman in front of her. Even in the dirty surroundings of the warehouse, Shura’s aging, tawdry beauty still shone. She was wearing a vermillion robe and glittering jewels, which draped across her expansive cleavage, drawing in the eye. Her red lips pulled back into a smile that might have been charming thirty years ago. Now it just set Suki’s teeth on edge. She glared at the woman who had caused so much death, destruction and fear, trying to fathom the working’s of the woman’s mind.

“Hello, my beauty,” Shura said in her light voice, clapping her red taloned hands together in delight. “Isn’t it funny the turns life can take? Not long ago, you rudely ejected me from the Fire Lord’s suite in an attempt to humiliate me…and now here you are. Tied up like the annoying little pest that you are.” Shura’s lip curled and she reached forward, slapping Suki across the face. The blow turned her head, pain cracking across her face. She bit down on the rag, not giving the woman the satisfaction of making a noise to show how much it had hurt. Instead she slowly turned her eyes back on Shura, her gaze daring the woman to hit her again.

Shura was ignoring her though, staring boredly at her fingernails. “I think you’ve ruined my manicure.” Suki rolled her eyes as Shura dropped her hand and focused on her again. Shura tilted her head and studied her face. “You know, I’ve rarely seen you without all of that paint on your face. What are you hiding under there?”

 _You’re one to talk,_ Suki thought acidly as Shura picked up the discarded blindfold, wrapped her hand up in Suki’s hair and roughly wiped the paint off of her face. She knew without a doubt how she’d look now—black smeared across her eyes and brows, the red and white mixing in clumps. Shura made a face.

“Well, that didn’t help at all,” she said and tossed the dirty cloth at her feet. “Honestly, I don’t know what he sees in you. Then again, the men in Zuko’s family always tend to fall in love with the wrong woman. Women who aren’t worthy of them. Women who can’t give them what they need. If Iroh had married me like he should have, I would have given him an army of sons and he wouldn’t have lost his only heir in a pointless war. _I_ wouldn’t have died in childbirth like that mealy mouthed Kiyo! Instead I was forced to marry a man who didn’t appreciate me, who took other men into our bed. I had to find my solace elsewhere…and while Iroh was losing the war and his son, I was raising four beautiful boys. His loss.”

Shura caressed reached past Suki and caressed her son’s face. Suki fought the urge to roll her eyes again. _Is she honestly monologuing me right now? Just fucking kill me._

“And Ozai? Ozai was…problematic. He took me into his bed after my husband  had is little “accident”, and his boring little wifey Ursa took off on him. I thought I could get him to marry me at first, but I quickly realize that Ozai was…mad. Mad with power, obsessed with his stupid war. Our affair was short-lived and frankly I was thankful it ended, but I learned a lot from him, Suki. For instance, I found out who was the most loyal to him. I wrote down names, learned secrets, weaknesses that I could exploit for my own gains. And one night, while he was sleeping, I found a map of every secret tunnel he had built in and out of the palace. Ozai was paranoid about his safety. He also made this stupid little squeaking noise when he orgasmed.” Shura pulled a disgusted face. “It was so off-putting.”

“Mother,” Shura’s son said in embarrassed voice. Suki glanced back at him and then back at Shura.

“Sorry, darling,” she said, waving her bejeweled wrist. “What was I saying? Oh yes, when Zuko came to the throne, I saw my opportunity again…but this time I knew I couldn’t rely on my looks to get what I wanted.”

Suki snorted through the gag, causing Shura’s eyes to narrow on her. She lifted her hand to slap her again, but stopped, looked at her nails and seemed to think better of it. Instead, her son wrapped his hand around Suki’s neck, putting just enough pressure on to hurt, but not enough to cut off her air. She didn’t struggle; she knew that that was what he wanted her to do. He would enjoy hurting her.

“Anyway,” Shura said, pacing in front of her, “As I was saying before I was so _rudely_ interrupted… When Zuko took the throne and Azula ran off in a fit of crazy, I saw how unhappy people were with the changes. I thought, what does this Nation of ours need? Strong leadership. A woman in charge for once. And why not me? So I used every bit of gossip, all of my cunning and more than a little brute force…and slowly but surely people flocked to my cause. When someone balked at my orders or failed…I had them eliminated. I don’t take failure well, but I also know that even the best plans can go awry. I worked so long and so hard to cover all of my eventualities… I had plots within plots. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want it to come to this. I wanted everything done neatly. I tried to seduce Zuko mostly because I felt pity for him.”

Suki lifted her eyebrow, staring at the woman in disbelief. Shura’s lips twisted.

“It’s not that I just wanted this to go easier, I also thought he could use a…mature woman in his bed. He’d been alone for so long. Well, not if you believed the rumors I was spreading about the two of you.” Suki’s eyes narrowed at that. “Oh yes, that was me, I’m afraid, but really you brought it on yourself. You were always there, an annoying pest keeping Zuko from me. I thought the two of you surely must be sleeping together. Or at least I could ruin your reputation if everyone _believe_ _d_ that you were. I even tried to turn the Council against you through Osamu. I thought perhaps if they believed you were a threat, they’d work to get you kicked out of the palace. That didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped…but it seems the rumors I started weren’t exactly baseless, were they? Tell me, darling, is he as good in bed as I think he is?”

Suki surged forward, intending on headbutting the woman, but Li-Shang hauled her back, holding her tight and squeezing her throat.

“I’ll take that as a yes! Mmm, just like his father! The men of the Royal family certainly have their talents, don’t they?” Shura laughed, fanning herself as Suki glared at her in disgust. Shura dropped her hand. “I gave him a chance and because of _you_ he didn’t take it. When you tossed me out of his suite that last time, I was so angry that I nearly ruined the whole thing! In a fit of pique I sent that assassin after the two of you. He was supposed to kill the both of you and he couldn’t even manage killing _one_ of you! Pathetic! I hear he stabbed you though.”

Shura’s eyes flicked to her son’s, and the next thing Suki knew, he grabbed the front of her uniform, yanking at the neckline. The fabric ripped, exposing the top of her left breast and her shoulder. Shura eyed the half-healed wound and then lifted her hand, digging her nails into it as Suki clamped down on the scream that wanted to break out of her.

She wasn’t going to give the woman the satisfaction.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Shura asked, getting into her face. “You’re desperate to get away from the pain and humiliation, aren’t you? But you can’t. Now imagine carrying that pain for thirty years. I’m going to make you feel it, Suki. And when that scarred up freak of a Fire Lord comes for you, I’ll make him feel it too. The world is going to pay for what it did to me.”


	25. Chapter 25

“Nothing. The soldiers stationed at the entrance to the tunnel say they saw and heard nothing,” Mak said, pacing the floor.

“Do you believe them?” Zuko asked.

“I don’t know,” Mak replied, his fist hammering against his thigh. “We’ve taken them off duty and they’ll be detained indefinitely. At least until we can figure out what the truth is. I’ve put another set of guards on the entrance and I have others in there looking for more passages that might branch off from that one.”

“We didn’t find anything, but it could be well hidden,” Mei Lin said, looking dusty and exhausted from searching the tunnel in the darkness. “Those soldiers certainly looked shocked to see Qing and Xiuying and I come out of there, that’s for sure.”

“But you didn’t find anything?” Zuko prompted. Xiuying shook her head.

“No. I’m sorry,” she said regretfully. Zuko nodded, feeling sick, frustrated and useless.

“Sire, I…I have the documents you requested,” Fen suddenly said from the doorway of Zuko’s sitting room, his eyes huge as he clutched the official-looking documents in his arms. Zuko gestured for the women to let him through, and Rin stepped aside, allowing Fen to walk hesitantly into the room.

Zuko swallowed, pressing his hands down flat on the surface of his desk, where he had been making an impressive set of scorch marks for the past twenty minutes.

“Bring them here,” he said in a calm voice. He wasn’t feeling calm though. Inside he was raging. He wanted to be doing something already. He wanted to hunt down the people who had taken Suki from him and make them pay.

Fen hesitated, clutching the papers against his chest. “Are you sure about this, Zuko?”

“I’ve made my decision.”

“Then I have to protest,” General Mak spoke up from his position in front of the balcony doors. The General looked thunderous and Zuko knew that he’d barely been holding his tongue since his arrival. “As the highest ranking military official here, I have to tell you that I think you’re wrong for doing this, Fire Lord Zuko.”

“And you’d have me leave Suki to Shura, when she’s already proven that she has no problem torturing and killing? She’s not making idle threats, Mak. She’ll murder Suki if I don’t do what she wants.”

“I’m not saying we should leave the Captain to die, but there has to be a way to do this without you abdicating or pardoning the Smoke Demons. Once you sign those papers, my men will be bound by law to stop hunting them. You’ll be letting them get away with their crimes, Zuko!”

“AND WHAT OTHER CHOICES DO I HAVE? HUH? I’D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR SUGGESTIONS!”

“We could just announce that you’ve abdicated, Zuko. You don’t have to really do it!” Fen said in a desperate voice. “How is Lady Shura going to know the truth or not?”

“Lady Shura is able to get in and out of this palace unseen and unmolested. She has an army of spies at her command. How do I know she isn’t going to learn that I’m only faking signing these documents ten minutes from now? Huh? Who do I trust? None of you… I’m sorry, but none of you.”

“Zuko–” Chao-Ahn started, but Zuko brought his fists down on his desk with a hard slam.

“She’s taken my safety, my trust, my Council, my bodyguards, my home… But I won’t let her take Suki from me. If she wants my throne, she can fucking have it. I won’t let anyone else pay for her greed or to protect me. I can’t. Not Suki.”

“This is madness, Zuko. You can’t give up the throne—the Nation!– for one woman!”

Mak’s words rang through the room like a slap in the face. Zuko tasted fire in his mouth and just barely refrained from unleashing it upon the General.

He swallowed, rolling the words in his mouth, tasting them through the heat. Then he said, almost apologetically, “I love her. Mak, I _love her._ ”

Mak started to say something, and then stopped when he looked Zuko directly in the eye. He must have seen something in Zuko’s expression; the truth, the hopelessness, the anger, the emotion overwhelming him—it didn’t matter. Whatever Mak saw it stopped his argument, a pained, almost pitying expression of his own overcoming his features. The General stared Zuko down and then nodded.

“I understand, I do, Zuko. All I’m asking is that you give my men a chance to find these Demons. There are only so many places they could be. If we can take them by surprise–”

“I can’t allow that, Mak. If your men attack, she’ll kill Suki.”

“You don’t know that–”

“I do. Shura is desperate…and I know that she hates Suki. She killed Aiko just to rub it in Suki’s face. She was taunting her, taunting me.”

“So what then? You sign those documents, give up your throne, pardon Shura and her people and then what? She didn’t demand you name her as Fire Lord. She’ll want something else, Zuko.”

“And what could that be? I don’t have anything else.”

“You won’t, but Iroh will,” Mai said from the doorway. Zuko started, surprised to see her there. Her long hair was pulled back from her face in a haphazard bun, and she looked pale beneath the bruises and bandages. Zuko started forward, catching her under the arm as she stumbled a little. He and Kikki helped her down into a chair. Mai looked annoyed at the help, but didn’t look as if she were in a position to fight it.

“What are you doing up? You should be laying down, you have a concussion,” Zuko said, crouching before her.

“I heard about Suki,” Mai said and then sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is. Shura used me again. As a distraction this time. She sends me to you bleeding and wounded with a fantastic tale about Shura’s army, knowing you’d start preparing for a battle, start looking outward for her forces but not inside. And it worked, just like she thought it would.”

Zuko lowered his head. “She’s smarter than I’ve ever given her credit, but she’s desperate now, Mai.”

“Is she?”

“We’ve ruined all of her plans so far. Nothing has gone the way she’s meant them to.”

“Maybe not, but I don’t think she’s desperate right now. I think you’ve forced her into a corner…but she’s smart enough to see a way out.”

“And what’s that? If she kills Suki, I’ll find her and destroy her and she knows it.”

“And how will you get Suki back, huh? Once you give her what she wants, she’ll demand you come to collect Suki yourself. And what then? What do you think she’ll do?”

Zuko’s hands clenched, because Mai’s words struck something deep within him, a truth he’d been afraid to look at too closely, afraid to face it so baldly because he knew that it would destroy him. The trap that was waiting for him was plain for anyone to see. “She’ll threaten Suki again and then take me hostage when I stand down to prevent it. Then she’ll kill Suki in front of me simply because she can, and because she hates her and because she’ll want to hurt me.”

“And then she’ll use you as bait for Iroh. Your Uncle would do anything for you. He’d marry that old witch to protect you and you know it.”

“If he does that, his life is as forfeit as mine and Suki’s. She’ll kill him, or have him killed, and the throne will be hers.”

“She did the same thing to Aiko,” Tam spoke up softly, making Zuko turn toward her. “She used her love of her mother to turn her against her friends, her oaths as a Kyoshi Warrior. And when she wasn’t useful any longer, she just destroyed her. She tossed her aside like a broken tool.”

“She’ll do the same thing to you, Zuko. And Captain Suki. And Iroh,” Mak said as he crossed his arms over his muscular chest. “You can’t negotiate with her.”

“And I can’t let Suki get hurt,” he said heavily, sitting down on the floor with a sigh. He ran his hands through his hair. He thought a long moment, eyes closing as Suki’s face popped up in his mind. He thought of her hands, the way they touched him, her laughter, the way she whispered his name between kisses, the blue of her eyes, the curve of her body, her scent, her taste, a future he had only just begun to hope for.

An ache formed within him, deep and bottomless and as precious as heartbeats. He clenched his fists and bit his lip to blood. Finally, he stood on legs that didn’t seem to belong to him any longer, and spoke.

“Fen, bring me the documents.”

He heard Mak curse under his breath and then kick over a chair, but he ignored the man. His mind had been made up the moment Suki had been taken, and he knew it. At least he knew what the stakes were.

“Zuko…” Mai started, grabbing his hand. He looked down at it for a moment and then squeezed her fingers. He let go and walked over to the desk, where Fen was busy laying out one of the pieces of paper.

Zuko sat down in the chair, grasped the brush and dipped it into the ink pot. His hand didn’t tremble. He felt numb, even though every bit of him was burning with hatred and fear.

“Are you sure?” Fen whispered, catching his eye.

“I am.”

Fen sighed and then gestured to the first document he’d laid out. “This is the Royal pardon. I’ve written it to include anyone who can claim to be conspiring with the Smoke Demons, including Lady Shura and her sons.”

“This means we’ll have to release Yukishima and the others we arrested,” Mak spoke up. “It also pardons Osamu and Aiko.”

“I know,” Zuko said and quickly signed the document in his neat hand.

Fen’s hand clenched at his side for a moment, then he dusted the wet ink with sank to dry it. He slowly slid the document off of the desk and Zuko stared at the scorched wood, feeling flames beneath his skin that wanted to break free.

His secretary put the next document before him. He scanned it, recognizing it as being similar to the document he’d signed so long ago removing his father from the Royal line of succession.  This one was for Azula, and would strip her of her title as Princess, and all of her rights to the throne. He felt a little sick, thinking of his sister, and the haunted light in her eyes. He thought of what Sokka had told him about the incident in Rinchaka Falls, what that might mean and the mysteries of what had happened to his sister during her long absence in his life. This would be another blow, maybe too much of one. What would it do to her, to think he had carelessly tossed her aside?

He had no choice. He signed the document and dipped his brush again, as Fen slid it away, only to replace it with an official decree of banishment, barring Azula from ever entering the Fire Nation again, under penalty of death. Bitterly, he signed that one too.

The next one was a document naming Iroh as his sole heir. He studied the document for a long moment. He had never officially declared an heir, though his Council had attempted to get him to name Iroh before, at least until he had children of his own, which they had been after him about relentlessly. He’d known that his uncle would not want the crown though.

He took a deep breath and signed his name. Fen slid it away, leaving Zuko waiting for the last paper he held in his hands. When Fen didn’t produce it, he glanced up at his secretary solemnly.

“Fen?”

“Sire, you can’t abdicate. _Please_.”

“Fen.”

His fiddly, fussy secretary broke then, slamming the paper down on the desk before him with an angry expression on his face. Zuko didn’t bother reading the paper. He signed it without hesitation, and then pushed it away.

“It’s done,” he said out loud to everyone gathered there.

“YOU ASSHOLE!”

Fen slapped him full across the face, shocking him, and everyone else. Qing was across the room within seconds, grasping Fen by the arm and hauling him back. Zuko held up his hand though, gesturing for her to let him go. She did, roughly, allowing Fen to stumble a little bit. Zuko got up and caught him by the shoulders.

He stared into Fen’s eyes for a long moment and Fen stared back. Finally, he seemed to crumple and sniffed back tears.

“I’m sorry,” Fen mumbled. “But you _are_ an asshole.”

“I know,” he said heavily, nodding his head. He glanced over at Mai, who was staring at the floor dispassionately.  Mak was looking mutinous and all of the Kyoshi Warriors seemed lost, as if they didn’t know what to do. “Mak, Fen, please see that the public is aware of what I’ve done tonight. I want it spread throughout the city by dawn. Wherever she is, I need Shura to know I’ve done as she’s asked.”

Mak bowed his head and walked to the door. He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something, but thought better of it. He walked out, leaving Fen to collect the documents. He rolled them up neatly as the silence in the room grew almost aggressive. He was very aware of the way the Kyoshi Warriors were watching him.

Fen walked out of the room without looking at him again, though he held his head up high, his back straight, and an odd expression on his face that Zuko couldn’t read. The moment the door closed on him, Zuko let out a breath and ran his hands through his hair, only to run afoul of the crown inserted into his topnotch.

He pulled it out and stared at it for a long moment. The firelight gleamed off of the gold, mocking him. He remembered too well how he had wanted to be free of its heavy weight in his youth. A little laugh left him and then he tossed it down on the desk with a careless clatter.

All around him the Kyoshi Warriors were getting to their feet, looks of determination on their painted faces. Zuko stared at his bodyguards one by one, meeting the intensity of their gazes and knowing that their rage was reflected in his own gaze. That rage filled the room like a warm wind and swept through all of them, fueling them, firing them, empowering them.

“I need all of you to understand something,” he said carefully. “I’ve just pardoned the Smoke Demons for their crimes. If I go after them, I’ll be arrested. No one in the Fire Nation can legally go after them.”

The Warriors looked at each other, bloodthirsty grins on their faces. Qing smirked at him. “Good thing we’re not from the Fire Nation.”

Zuko fought a grin. “You don’t have to do this. I’m not the Fire Lord any longer. I don’t need your protection.”

“Aiko’s dead. Ty Lee nearly died and our Captain is being held captive by the woman responsible for it all,” spunky little Kikki spoke up, whipping open her fan and waving it demurely at her face. “With all due respect, Zuko, you’re going to have to tie us all up to stop us from going after her.”

“And we’d kick your ass so damned hard,” Tam said, cracking her knuckles.

Zuko pulled a half-smile. “Glad to hear it, because I’m going to need every single one of you when I go after her.”

“How?”

“Whoever took Suki came through that passageway. There has to be a second way out of it other than the entrance in the stables and I’m willing to bet it goes to wherever Shura’s hiding Suki. There are too many soldiers around the palace, the Caldera and the Capitol right now. They wouldn’t want to risk being seen.”

“But we didn’t find anything,” Mei Lin piped up.

“We’ll find it,” Zuko said softly. “We have to.”

“Then we will,” Mai said, getting to her feet.

“Mai, you’re hurt–” he started, but she shook her head. She looked paler than usual, but as determined as he’d ever seen her. He knew that look well enough. She’d had it on her face the last time they’d broken up; there would be no dissuading her. He’d learned that lesson well.

“Shura played me. It’s time we turned the tables on her.”

Zuko nodded at her, “And while she’s gloating over her victory, we’re going to _destroy her._ If she wants my uncle and the throne, she’s going to have to go through me to get it.”

* * *

Despite what must have been the late hour, judging by the light slanting in from the grimy windows, there was a lot of activity going on in the warehouse the Smoke Demons had made into their headquarters. Suki watched the masked men and women, all of whom proudly sported the familiar tattooed black flame insignia.

They hadn’t blindfolded her again, and Shura didn’t seem to mind that she was watching the warehouse, clocking everything that was going on.

She’d been trying to count Shura’s men and had come up with a little over a hundred and fifty so far. It was a massive warehouse though, built during the war to house multiple war balloons. There were only two there now, though they looked well-stocked and well-manned.

Lady Shura had spared no expense, and with little wonder, given her wealth. She saw dozens of crates of weapons being carted past, what looked like a group of earthbenders, and a group of firebenders practicing at the other end of the warehouse well away from the airships, the hot, bright flash of their flames lighting up the darkened corners.

More men and women worked together in the center, sparring. With a knowing eye, she watched their technique and recognized it. The assassin that had tried to kill them on the balcony that night had fought like that.

It put a sour taste in her dry mouth, or maybe that was just the gag they had yet to remove. The cloth was really cutting into the corners of her lips now, and she tried dropping her head to get some slack, but it wasn’t much better that way.

Her arms ached, especially the shoulder that had taken a knife that night on the balcony. The wound had been healing well and had barely given her much of a twinge in days, but now the half-healed tissues was being stretched beyond its limit. It made pain rattle down her frame, making her already strained muscles quiver.

Sweat spread on her back, in part because of the strain, and the other because of the unbearable, muggy heat of the place. The weeks of scorching heat had been temporarily abated by the rain that had swept through, but the rain had ended hours ago, leaving everything muggy, the air like thick soup. It settled on her skin like a wet blanket, sapping her energy as much as the pain in her shoulder and the position she’d been tied up in.

Frustration made her head tilt back, as she stared again at the hook dangling from the machinery above her head. The rope on her bound hands had been placed on the hook, and the hook itself had been raised high enough that she couldn’t get enough leverage to jerk it off again. She was just too short. Even lifting to her tiptoes did nothing but made her bones ache.

She hated feeling helpless, hated that she had let her guard down, hated that she had left Zuko when she had. If only she’d stayed…

She hated most of all that she couldn’t be there to protect Zuko right now. What was he doing?

_Probably something dangerous and stupid._

Suki dropped her head and took a ragged breath around the damp, nasty rag in her mouth. She jerked on the ropes, but they didn’t give. She closed her eyes shut tightly.

_Hold on, Zuko. I don’t know how, but I’m going to get out of here… And then I’m going to make these bastards pay._


	26. Chapter 26

Zuko’s boots padded silently down the rough stone steps, as he slowly worked his hand over the walls, searching for seams where a hidden door might be. Behind him, the other Kyoshi Warriors were keeping pace, pushing and prodding at every available surface.

Dust tickled his nose in the dank air, but he ignored it, trying to concentrate instead on controlling the rage beating within him like a second heart. His temper was barely under control, and he could tell it by the intensity of the flames burning inches from his outstretched hand. It threw guttering shadows across the narrow passageway, haunting him with the ghosts of what might be happening to Suki at this very moment.

 _Because of me,_ he thought bitterly. _They took her because of me. Because they knew how I felt about her. I put her in danger. Shura killed Aiko and then threatened Suki’s life, and I didn’t take it seriously. I should have._

His thoughts ran in little circles as he searched, his bandaged hand sliding along the rocks. Thinking of his mistakes was easier than thinking of the future. Maybe giving up the throne had been a mistake, but he couldn’t risk Shura finding out if he’d faked it. He needed her to think he was playing her game.

He knew that the others were right. Shura’s plan was to take him hostage and hold his safety as bait for Iroh.

It made him feel sick. He wouldn’t put his uncle in the same position that he was in. This was his fight, and he had every intention of winning.

“Zuko, I don’t feel anything. We’ve been over these walls three times,” Mai said softly at his back. Zuko closed his eyes for a moment, his temper flaring again.

“It has to be here,” he said through his teeth. “There has to be a second tunnel from here. I know it. I swear I’m going to find it even if I have to go to my father and beg him.” That was a prospect he didn’t relish. He and his father hadn’t spoken in years, and he doubted Ozai would be very forthcoming, especially since he’d moved him to a secret prison cell and isolated him.

Xiuying cursed, punching the wall with force. Everyone stared at her and she shrugged. “I thought that might help.”

“Feels more productive than groping the wall,” Mai mumbled.

“No one asked you to come, Mai!” Zuko snapped, turning on her in an instant. His temper flared again, and this time he didn’t stop the way his fire blazed out of control. It grew, filling the passageway with red light, and illuminated the white and red painted faces before him.

It was the fear and worry in their eyes that stopped him. He drew back the gout of flame and then sank down onto one of the steps, rubbing his eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Mai said, touching his shoulder. “We’ll keep looking. Take a moment.”

He nodded, holding the flame close to him as he leaned his head against the uneven stones. The Kyoshi Warriors filed past him then, still searching. He watched them for a long moment and then looked down at his feet, his eyes unfocused.

As he refocused, he glanced down at the step below the one beneath his feet, the flames catching on the uneven surface of the volcanic rock. Zuko’s eyes narrowed, noting the odd, diagonal lines carved into the steps. The lines ran into the wall, as if pointing to it.

He pushed himself forward onto his knee on the step, running his fingertips over the scratches. He glanced at the other steps, but they were smooth, carved out by an Earthbender of considerable skill. His jaw clenched as he slid his hands against the joint where the step met the wall.

There was a crack there, just small enough to get his fingernails beneath it.

He pulled on it, but nothing happened. He pushed, but nothing. Frustrated, he tried and failed again and again to make the wall open up. This had to be it. It had to be.

“Zuko?” Rin asked, noticing what he was doing. “Did you find something?”

“I don’t know. There are scratches here, in the stone,” he said, lowering the flames dancing above his hand to illuminate them for the others to see. As he did, the flames guttered, an invisible wind pushing past him.

The others went still, and he let out a breath of his own, excitement coursing through him.

“Was that–?” one of them asked in a hushed voice. He nodded, glancing up at them.

“This is it.”

He studied the seam for a long moment. Then he stood, feeling along the walls again. Up near the low ceiling, his hand brushed a particularly smooth rock imbedded in the facade. He stopped, rubbing his finger over it for a long moment. Then he pushed on it.

Immediately, a section of the stairs ten feet below the his position gave way, dropping down like a trapdoor—and taking Kikki and Qing with it.

They landed in a heap in the darkness, their voices echoing in the narrow passage.

“Are you okay?” Zuko asked, racing forward to illuminate the opening in the stairs.

“OUCH! SOME WARNING NEXT TIME?” Kikki spat, getting to her feet with all the fury of an embarrassed cat. She clawed her hair out of her face and glared up at him.

“Sorry! I thought the wall would give, not the stairs!” he explained, chagrined, but excited.

Kikki returned his grin. “I think we found it though.”

“Watch out, I’m coming down,” Zuko said, slinging his legs over the edge of the steps. Kikki and Qing stepped back against the walls and Zuko dropped down, landing in a crouch.

He rose and, stepping past the two women, lifted his hands and sent a hot blast of fire down the passage, lighting up the corners. It seemed to go on into infinity, the fireball dying out before it came to the end.

“They took her this way,” he choked out. “It slopes down here… I think it goes beneath the Caldera, maybe even down into the city.”

“Probably to their hideout,” Qing said as the other Kyoshi Warriors dropped down into the passage behind him. “Or at least close enough to make it easier to find.”

“They’ll probably have guards posted somewhere at the end,” Mai warned from the top of the entrance. “They have to know we’d search the tunnel. They wouldn’t want to risk us finding the entrance, even by chance. Or at least I wouldn’t.”

“You’re right. If we take this tunnel, we need to do it in the dark, and make as little noise as possible. We don’t know what…” Zuko stopped, staring at the Kyoshi Warriors, who were looking at each other knowingly. “What? What’s wrong?”

“You can’t go, Zuko.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard us.”

“I don’t need you to protect–”

“We’re not protecting you, Zuko,” Mei Lin said as she held up her hands. “If this tunnel leads to the Smoke Demons, then we need to get Suki out of there as quickly and quietly as possible, and do it while they’re not looking. According to Mai, we’re outnumbered.”

“You think I can’t–” he started, but Chao-Ahn stepped up.

“We know what you’re capable of. You’re an amazing fighter, Zuko. We know that. That’s why we need you to distract Shura.”

“They’re right,” Mai said from above, crouched on the edge of the hole now, though she didn’t look as steady as she usually would. “Once it gets out that you’ve abdicated, Shura’s not going to wait to make her next move. She’s going to demand that you come to get Suki. Probably alone.”

“And while you do that, we’ll be there getting Suki free.”

“So I give myself up?”

“Yeah, right,” Kikki snorted. “Once we have Suki, there goes her leverage against you. Once we have her free, you kick that bitch’s ass.”

“This was your plan the whole time?”

“Well yeah, if we left the planning up to you we’d just run in there throwing fireballs and probably getting everyone killed,” Mai said, causing him to glare up at him. “You don’t think very clearly when you’re upset. You go off all half-cocked.”

“I’m not going off all half-cocked! I’m fully-cocked right now and I…” he stopped himself and buried his face in his hand. “Spirits, that sounded so much better in my head.”

“Really doubt that,” Mai drawled dryly.

Zuko dropped his hand and glared up at her. “This is why we broke up.” Mai’s smile was almost devilish, but she didn’t reply. He turned his attention back on the Kyoshi Warriors around him. “If you think this plan will work, then we’ll do it. I trust you. All of you, with my life and with Suki’s.”

“We won’t disappoint you, Fire Lord Zuko.”

“I’m not the Fire Lord anymore.”

“We’ll see about that,” Mai said and then touched her bruised face for a moment. “If you can get her out of there before Shura demands to meet with Zuko, all the better, but if you can’t, just make sure that Zuko isn’t take captive.”

“And where are you going to be?” Zuko asked her.

Mai’s devilish grin made a reappearance. “I have a friend who might be of some help. I’m going to go find her. You’ll know where I am when the time comes, Zuko. Don’t worry about that.”

Zuko turned to the women—his friends—before him. “Find her. Get her out of there. Don’t get killed. I already lost Aiko, I don’t want to lose any of you too. If you can’t get her free, then wait for my distraction.”

“How will we know it?”

“Trust me, you’ll know it,” Zuko said darkly. Then he jumped up, catching hold of the rim of the opening and hoisting himself up over the lip and back into the first passage. He looked down at the glowing white and red faces peering up at him from the darkness. Mai passed him a torch and he lit it, and then passed it down to Tam. “Please bring her back to me.”

All of them nodded and then they took off, walking into the darkness of the tunnel and out of sight. Zuko swallowed hard, wondering if he’d just gotten all of them killed.

He closed his eyes and prayed to whatever spirit was listening. He knew they’d need all the luck they could get.

And even that might not be enough.

* * *

Sweat slicked down Suki’s back as she slowly focused every inch of her body on the metal she’d been hooked to. She ignored the cuts in the corners of her mouth, the burning throb in her shoulder from her healing knife wound that Shura had exposed, and the searing pain in her wrists from the rough rope rubbing her raw.  All she had to do was get her damned arms free. That was all.

She glanced around; the activity in the warehouse had increased, rather than decreased. It felt like they were gearing up for a battle. She was starting to see more armor and weaponry now. Whatever they were preparing to do, she doubted she’d be around to witness it.

Shura’s youngest son, Li-Shang Junior, was pacing back and forth across the warehouse floor, giving her predatory looks whenever he thought no one else was looking. She could feel his leering gaze on her, and knew exactly what he was thinking and what he would like to do to her.

Like a caged animal, he seemed eager to reach out and snatch her up like a dangled piece of meat. The look in his eyes, more than anything, made fear thread down her spine. She knew the moment Shura’s attention was elsewhere, Li-Shang would do something to her.

She had a feeling that something would be getting her alone in a room with a locked door. He seemed almost incapable of holding himself back as it was. She knew exactly what he would do to her, and she wasn’t about to stand there waiting like a lamb to slaughter.

So she ignored the pain in her body, and the hungry looks shooting her way like flying daggers, and concentrated every ounce of agility and strength she had into freeing her bound hands from the hook.

Shura, she noticed, was shouting orders now, clearly agitated, her heels clacking on the cement. Suki glared at her back, wondering how the woman wasn’t sweating all of her makeup off in this heat. She took a breath of the hot air through her nose and glanced up at the hook again.

She glanced back at Shura, watching as someone came running over from the entrance with a paper in his hands. There was too much noise and commotion going on in the warehouse for her to catch what they said, but Shura seemed excited all of a sudden, clapping her hands and throwing back her head in a hearty, girlish giggle that set Suki’s teeth on edge.

She snatched the paper up, scanned it, and then, like a snake striking, turned to face Suki. There was a smug expression on her face, one of absolute triumph. Suki’s stomach sank to her toes. Whatever had happened to put that look on Shura’s face, she knew it didn’t bode well for her.

Her suspicions were immediately proven correct when Shura snapped something to the Smoke Demon who had brought her the paper, and then turned her red-lipped smile in Suki’s direction again.  The next thing Suki knew, Shura was marching toward her, practically bouncing.

“Good news, darling! The best, really!” Shura crowed in delight, waving the paper at her. “It seems I wasn’t wrong about Zuko. He really does love you. Do you know what he did?”

Suki’s eyes narrowed as she glared at the woman.

Shura’s smile widened and her voice rang out in a sharp pitch, catching the attention of everyone within earshot. “He pardoned me. Well, me and the rest of my compatriots. All of our crimes have been excused, which means we cannot be arrested. There is nothing they can do to us now.”

Shura waved her hands excitedly, making Suki’s nose wrinkle.

“That’s not all. He banished and disinherited Azula, named Iroh his heir and…this is the _best!_ He abdicated the throne.”

Suki’s blood ran cold as her eyes widened. A noise escaped her, involuntarily, squeaking past the rag in her mouth. Shura laughed and stepped close to her.

“Oh yes, you heard me correctly. He gave it all up. All of it. His crown, his palace, his life. For _you_. How does that make you feel?” Shura’s eyes were as sharp as shark’s teeth, full of malice and gloating. Suki let out a breath, shaking now as anger and sorrow overcame her. Shura grabbed her beneath the chin, forcing her head up. “And do you know why he did it? Because he loves you. He loves you, Suki. And do you know what I’m going to make him do next? I’m going to make him come for you. Alone. Unguarded. I’m going to take him and make him watch while I kill you, then I’m going to use him to get Iroh here. I’m going to take that throne and I’m going to crush it under my feet.”

She shoved Suki back, nearly knocking her bound feet out from underneath her. She swayed in her bonds, feeling sick, bitterness in her mouth. Her mind ran in circles, sparking her anger.

Shura’s pacing son came closer, an eagerness rolling off him in unmistakable waves. “Mother… Mother, you promised.”

Shura glanced at her son and let out an indulgent sigh. “Really, darling? Now?”

“You said I could have her before we killed her!” he said, as petulant as a five-year-old denied a sweet. “You promised!”

Shura glanced back at Suki and curled her lip. Then she waved her hand at her son dismissively. “Fine. Take her, but if you kill her before I’m ready for it, I’m going to be cross with you.”

“Of course, Mother,” Li-Shang rumbled, rushing past Shura and coming straight for Suki. Her heart leaped, fear and utter, bone-deep revulsion blasting through the pain and exhaustion. She knew what he wanted. Knew it all too well.

She’d rather die fighting than suffer through _that._

As he approached, Suki gathered her strength, breathing hard through her nose. She spotted the knife on his belt, clocking the way he moved, his broken nose and bruised face. He was too intent on her, his gaze fixed on the top of her breast exposed by her ripped uniform.

Instinct, fueled by her fear and desperation, kicked in. Li-Shang grabbed her by the waist, intending on lifting her off of the hook and as he did, he purposefully shoved his face against her breasts. Suki moaned out loud, causing him to look up at her in eager shock, just as she’d planned.

She reared back her head and headbutted him as hard as she could. The blow took him directly on his broken nose and she heard it crunch and collapse against her forehead as blood burst forth in a hot, thick spray.

He howled out in pain, letting go of her and clutching at his flattened nose as blood gushed from his nostrils. He bent over, and she jerked forward on the hook, putting one foot on his knee and twisting upward in a spin.

Her bound hands came free of the hook with a wild swing and she came down on his back in a full-body slam that took them both to the floor. As he tried to buck her off, Suki’s hands groped at his side, searching for the knife.

“STOP! SOMEONE STOP HER!”

Suki tuned out Shura’s shrieks as Li-Shang rolled to the side, tossing her off of his back. He lumbered to his feet, bellowing like a raging komodo rhino. His eyes narrowed on her as her eyes widened. He charged her, intending on kicking her, but she rolled out of the way at the last second. She turned over on her side, spun, and brought her bound feet back against his ankles, knocking him down on the ground.

His rage seemed to triple at that, and he reached behind him, grabbing Suki’s feet and dragging her across the cement floor.

She tried to kick him off, clasping her hands together and swinging at his massive head. The blow connected and he grunted, grabbing her around the throat and hauling her up against him. He screamed in her face, a wordless bellow, and then slammed her down onto her back on the floor.

The wind was knocked out of her by the force of the blow and she gasped around the gag in her mouth as his hand tightened on her throat.

“YOU LITTLE BITCH!” he screamed, his spittle flecking her face as she gasped. “I’m going to make you pay for that. I’m going to do it in front of everyone too!”

“Do it, darling! Teach her a lesson!” Shura hissed, surging forward.

Suki groped at his belt again, as he pinned her down. His hand caught the tear in her uniform and yanked hard. At the same moment, she found the hilt of his dagger and slid it out of the scabbard.

Li-Shang surged toward her as she twisted the knife in her numb fingers and brought it up into his throat, shoving it upward beneath his chin.

His expression of rage changed to one of startled shock as blood shot out of his mouth and sprayed across her face. Suki flinched, shoving the slippery handle of the dagger upward with as much force as she could muster.

Shura’s son choked on his own blood, garbling out a scared, pathetic noise as he pitched to the side and rolled off of her and onto his back. The dagger slipped from her fingers, but she knew from the screams in the air that it was all but useless to her anyway.

There were too many Smoke Demons surrounding her now. Shura’s screams of inconsolable rage echoed in the air as she skidded to her knees beside her son, clutching at him in useless panic.

“NO! NO! LI-SHANG! WHAT DID SHE DO TO YOU? MY BABY! BABY, PLEASE NOOOO!!!”

Someone grabbed Suki and hauled her up off of the ground and to her feet. She struggled, but there was no use. A dagger was put at her own throat, pricking her skin. She settled down, watching dispassionately as Li-Shang slowly choked to death on his own blood, his eyes rolling wildly in their sockets.

It took nearly a minute for him to die, which wasn’t long enough for Suki. Finally, he gave one last rattling, wet breath, his whole body shuddering, and then lay motionless on the floor in a pool of dark red blood. Shura threw herself across his body, sobbing brokenly.

Suki smiled through the gag, a full grin that spread as she felt the cooling blood rolling down her face. None of the Smoke Demons moved; they seemed to be in shock. Eventually, Shura’s head came up, her face streaked with blood, her talon-tipped hands dripping. She glared at Suki through her running makeup. The look of rage on her face was nearly identical to her son’s. It made Suki grin harder and she couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up out of her throat, from the very pits of her soul. It burst out around the muffling gag, but it was unmistakable in the echoing silence.

“ _You_ ,” Shura ground out, her whole body shaking as she climbed unsteadily to her feet. “You did this, you little slut. YOU KILLED MY SON! YOU MURDERED MY BABY!”

Suki laughed harder, daring the woman with her eyes. She knew what was going to happen and she _dared her._

Shura charged her and delivered a devastating backhand that knocked Suki back into the Smoke Demon holding her up. It also pulled the gag out of her mouth at last. She spat out the dirty, wet cloth and took a ragged breath, her face on fire from the blow.

Shura was sobbing and seething in front of her, as if waiting for Suki to say something. Suki spat out a mouthful of blood onto the floor and looked up at Shura through the sweaty strands of her hair. She pulled a bloody smirk.

“I hope it was as good for him as it was for me.”

Shura’s eyes flashed and she struck Suki again, hard enough to put stars in her eyes. Shura looked up at the Smoke Demon keeping Suki from falling to her knees. “Kill the bitch!”

“Mother, we need her.” It was Shura’s eldest son Kang, looking just as angry as his mother, but more in control of himself. “Zuko needs to know she’s alive. She’s bait.”

“He doesn’t need to see that she’s alive. He just needs to think she is. KILL HER!”

“He’ll want proof that she’s alive,” Kang said, walking to his mother. He put his hand on her waist as if to soothe her. “Once we have Zuko, _then_ you can kill her. You can tear her apart while Zuko watches. You can make them both suffer.”

Shura glared at her and then lifted her chin. “Fine. We’ll wait, but I want Zuko here NOW, within the hour. I’m through playing games with him.”

“Of course, Mother. We’ll send an envoy to him right away.” Her son bowed out, leaving Shura shaking in front of Suki. Shura stepped close and grabbed Suki’s face.

“I’m going to burn you alive for this.”

“I’d rather burn than let your sick fuck of a son put his hands on me. Wonder where he learned it from?”

Shura slapped her again, her nails raking along Suki’s cheek, opening three shallow cuts that stung and bled. Suki hitched in a breath as Shura stepped back, licking her lips.

“Get her out of my sight.”

Suki was dragged across the warehouse, down a hallway and tossed into a darkened storage room. She landed on her back on the floor with a bruising bang that rattled her bones. The door slammed shut again, leaving her in alone in the little room.

She took an unsteady breath and then grinned in the darkness. “Well, that went better than I expected.”


	27. Chapter 27

“My Lady Mother requests your presence, Fire Lord Zuko. Or should I say _former_ Fire Lord?” Lord Kang said in a gloating voice.

Zuko stared at Lady Shura’s eldest son, who had shown up at the gates to the Caldera waving a white flag and insisting on seeing Zuko. Mak had brought him to the Throne Room under heavy guard. The Smoke Demon had been examining the throne when Zuko had walked in. No doubt he was imagining himself in it.

The sight of him had nearly made Zuko attack, but he’d restrained himself, studying him instead. He vaguely recognized the man, but he’d never had a reason to speak to him. He had a mean look about him, a rough-and-tumble appearance that was at odds with his pedigree. Kang had inherited his father’s lordship, but he’d mostly used it to get out of trouble with the city police. Or so the rumors said.

Zuko glared at him. “What have you done to Suki?”

“Nothing. Yet. Your lover was alive when I left my mother’s side. I can’t guarantee her safety in my absence.”

“Why not?” Zuko snapped at him, fear leaping into his throat, but the knowledge that Suki was alive was enough to make his knees buckle. He grasped the chair in front of him for support, adrenaline surging in him.

Kang lifted one heavy brow. “She murdered my youngest brother. In front of our mother.”

Pride swelled in him and a smile slowly spread on his face. “That’s my girl. I’m sure he deserved it.”

“Undoubtedly,” Lord Kang said, surprising him. “Li-Shang was always a bit of a bastard. I won’t miss him, and I’ll sleep easier knowing he’s not waiting to knife me in a bid for the inheritance.”

Zuko’s lip curled as he stared at the man before him. “Your mother raised some fine, upstanding gentlemen.”

“She raised us to be brutal and ruthless. She raised us to be leaders. She raised us to know our worth,” Kang said haughtily.

“You know she’s insane, don’t you?”

Kang’s knuckles cracked, the muscles in his massive arms rippling with the effort not to reach out and strangle Zuko. Kang sucked on a tooth and then met Zuko’s gaze. There was more intelligence there than his appearance suggested. “At least my mother didn’t abandon me.”

Zuko’s fists tightened, and he felt fire swell in him. He held it back, lifting his chin. “So what’s the play here?”

“You’ll come with me, willingly. _Alone._ I’ll take you to where we’re keeping the woman. No bodyguards,” Kang started and then glanced around. “Where are the other painted whores?”

Zuko felt another flash of anger in him, which he tamped down again. Now was not the time. “I fired them. I’m no longer the Fire Lord. I don’t need protection.”

“You sure about that?” Kang shot at him. Zuko tightened his fists.

“How do I know she’s still alive? How do I know you’re not lying to me?”

Kang shrugged. “You don’t.”

“Is this the part where you tell me she’ll be safe if I give myself up for her?” he asked skeptically. Kang smirked at him.

“My mother has no intention of letting her live and we both know it. Not after she murdered my brother. Probably not even before that. She has a grudge against her. Mother takes her grudges seriously.”

“You don’t say?” Zuko drawled. “So why should I go with you?”

“If I return without you in tow, mother will have me strangle your lover. Or perhaps she’ll let me stab her to death. It doesn’t matter. She’ll die within minutes of my return. If you come… Perhaps there’s a chance you may negotiate with Mother. Perhaps. If you truly love the woman, as my mother believes, then I would take the chance, Zuko.”

Zuko glared at him, his thoughts on the Kyoshi Warriors. Had they found the end of the tunnel? Did it lead to the Smoke Demons secret warehouse? Had they already gotten Suki out of there in Kang’s absence?

There was no way to know. He couldn’t wait to find out. Kang was right, and Zuko had known it before the man had even showed up on his doorstep to fetch him. There was no other choice but to walk into the moose lion’s den, without backup, out numbered and with only the slimmest possibility of rescuing the love of his life.

 _Good thing I named an heir, because this is definitely going to end in my death_ , Zuko thought with a black humor.

“Take me to Lady Shura.”

“The swords,” Kang said, gesturing to the dual dao swords strapped to Zuko’s back. He unbuckled the scabbard and let it drop at his feet.

General Mak started forward immediately. “Zuko, what are you doing?” Zuko didn’t answer him, gesturing Kang toward the door. Mak followed, grabbing his arm. “ZUKO!”

“Let go of me, General,” Zuko said in a low voice.

“I cannot allow you to do this! You’re walking into a trap!”

“I know that, but I have no other choice.”

“I’ll have you arrested. Soldiers?” Mak said, letting go of his arm and gesturing to his men, who stepped forward instantly. Zuko glanced at Kang and then at his feet. He knew that Mak was trying to help, but he didn’t have time for this.

“I’m sorry about this, Mak,” Zuko said, and turned on him with a blast of blinding flame. The General barked out an order, as Zuko slammed his palms into the man’s chest, knocking him into the floor. He slid across the marble, his armor scorched and smoking.

Zuko turned on the soldiers around him, shooting another wave of fire in their direction. One of the soldiers was blasted back into the wall. Two others proved themselves to be firebenders, taking his fire and redirecting it at him. He avoided the searing fireball and slid on the floor beneath it. He came up in front of one, grabbed him by the front of his armor and twisted, tossing him into his friend. They toppled onto the floor in a clanking heap.

Zuko turned on the fourth soldier, but Kang had him around the throat, lifting him off of the floor so that his feet dangled.

“Put him down!” Zuko barked. Kang turned on him and then casually tossed the soldier aside.

“Don’t do this, Zuko,” Mak said, wheezing as he struggled to get to his knees.

“The Fire Nation is yours until my uncle takes the throne. Guard it well,” he said, meeting Mak’s gaze for a long moment. Then he shoved Kang toward the door. Together he and the Smoke Demon took off, running through the halls of the palace before Mak could call in reinforcements. Servants and soldiers stopped to stare at them as they ran, but no one tried to stop them.

He followed Kang out of the palace, through the gates and into the Caldera, where dawn was breaking in the east, turning the sky pink in streaks. He didn’t ask where they were going. So long as it was toward Suki, it didn’t matter.

He just hoped the Warriors had found her.

* * *

Kikki put her gloved finger to her lips, stilling the others, though they hadn’t been making a sound as they climbed the sides of the massive warehouse. The tunnel had let out in the basement of a small, abandoned shop in the lee of the warehouse. A quick search of the perimeter had brought them into contact with a patrolling band of soldiers, all of whom were wearing the black flame insignias on their clothing and skin.

The fight had been short and mostly silent. Their bodies were hidden in an alley nearby, their deaths as quick and painless as possible. The code of the Kyoshi Warrior was to deliver mercy. Sometimes mercy came in the form of a quick death. It was more than the bastards who had killed Aiko deserved.

Dawn was slowly turning the sky pink and orange. They were losing the cover of darkness and the shadows that might aid stealth.

The warehouse had a large retractable roof, with massive skylights, grimed over by disuse. Unable to find an unguarded entry, and unsure of the numbers facing them if they took on the sentries at the doors, they’d unanimously decided to scale the face of the warehouse and find a way in from above.

Tam glanced back at the others, waiting for Kikki’s signal. It came a moment later, a wordless gesture that sent their boots sliding along the edifice of the warehouse.

Mei Lin reached the window first and she slowly slid her face across it, staring into the cavernous warehouse. She saw two war balloons, soldiers, and a large, fresh bloodstain on the floor, which someone was trying to mop up. The window, set just below the line of the retractable roof, had a latch on it, telling her that there was probably a catwalk beneath it. She pushed the tip of her dagger into the gap between the frames. She caught the latch with the tip of the knife and slowly eased it open. Even more slowly, she gently eased the swollen window open. It protested, but she pushed and it came up a few more inches. Enough to allow them all to slip through.

Quickly the Kyoshi Warriors slipped into the warehouse, landing silently on a metal catwalk that ran the perimeter of the massive room. They crouched as one, keeping to the shadows, listening, waiting for some sign as to where their Captain was being held.

Qing noticed a group of Smoke Demons beneath them and signaled for everyone to be quiet. The men’s voices echoed as they spoke over the work going on in the corner.

“Kang should be back any minute now.”

“Where’s Lady Shura?”

“With Li-Shang’s body. Or maybe she went to the supply room and she’s murdering that painted bitch? I’m surprised she didn’t strangle her on the spot. You know how she feels about failure.”

“Well, maybe I’ll slip into the closet myself and do the deed? She might reward me for my initiative,” the first soldier said, gesturing to a hallway in the back of the large room.

“You do that and I guarantee you’ll end up like Li-Shang.”

“I can take her.”

“Well, you know what they say about those Earth Kingdom girls, don’t you?”

“What’s that?”

“They’ve dirt in their–”

“What are you two doing? Get back to work!” an authoritative voice barked at them, making both men jump and take off. Xiuying’s lip curled as she looked up at the others, but the expression faded as they turned to stare at the hallway one by one.

Between them and the hallway were two dozen Smoke Demons.

Rin pulled a bloodthirsty grin, and then glanced at the war balloons bobbing on their tethers. Time for a distraction. A _big_ one.

* * *

Blood burst into Suki’s mouth as she broke open the scabs forming on the corners of her lips, the rough rope digging into her skin as she chewed on it. It was thick and dirty and tasted almost as bad as the rag that had been in her mouth most of the night.

It was dark in the supply closet, but she had rolled up against the door, putting her weight against it and using the tiny crack of light coming in from underneath to see the knots around her ankles. If nothing else, whoever came for her would find it hard to open the door with her body blocking it.

She had no doubt they’d get in eventually though, but why make it easy on them? She tugged on the rope, her jaw aching, twists of rope stuck in her teeth. She cursed whoever had tied the knots. They’d gotten overly enthusiastic about it.

She thought of Mai and a little smile hit her bloody, raw lips. No doubt they’d learned their lesson after Mai had gotten free and knocked a few heads together. She blinked back sweat in the stuffy, smelly room and pulled at the rope again, wishing she had a knife, sharper teeth, something.

Instead, all she had was a wildly off-kilter inner clock telling her that dawn was coming, that Shura’s plans would be put into play soon. She had to be ready to fight and she couldn’t do that with her hands bound.

She’d managed to get her feet free, though she had broken all of her nails to the quick doing it. At least she could run for it if it came to that.

She stopped in mid-chew, and put her eye to the crack beneath the door. She couldn’t see much, just a bit of the dusty, blood-speckled floor, but anyone approaching would block out the light. If that happened she had to be ready.

She bit down on the rope again, tugging it as her numb fingers flexed, trying to keep the blood flowing. Slowly, one of the knots came free. She let it go, relaxing her jaw for a moment as she licked the dirt, and sweat and blood from her lips. Her skin was sticky, Li-Shang’s blood drying in flaky patches. She felt disgusting, covered in blood and sweat. Her skin crawled, or maybe it was just the memory of Li-Shang’s angry, lust-filled eyes.

She pushed him out of her thoughts. He was dead. If she did nothing else in her life, at least she’d done that.

The light beneath the door was blocked out for a moment, and she started, pushing her face against the crack. She could see someone approaching at a run, and then heard a muffled cry of pain. Something landed against the door, hard, making her scoot back in surprise as the door bounced a little. The next moment, a loud explosion rocked the warehouse, making the floor beneath her shake, bits of wood and dust raining down on her.

The sound didn’t seem to stop though, piercing the air with a series of loud pops and a high-pitched hiss. Shouts followed, voices rising in a crescendo as Suki struggled to pick out the words in the dim. She put her face to the crack, desperate to know what was going on, and saw feet on the other side of the door. She heard the lock go and braced herself against the door.

Whatever was going on out there, she wasn’t going to let the bastards into the room with her. Whoever was on the other side of the door pushed on it, but her weight kept it closed. The shouts in the warehouse only seemed to be getting louder, as another explosion rocked the air. The intruder on the other side of the door hit the wood with a hard slam that pushed her back a foot. Another hard slam came before she could recover, and it rolled her to the side.

She immediately scrambled to her feet, wheeling on the door, her feet digging in, waiting for an opportunity, an escape. The door swung open all the way, and Suki took off like a shot, bowling into the person in the doorway, who cried out her name as she knocked her back flat on her ass.

Another pair of arms caught Suki as she vaulted over the person in the doorway, her bound hands drawn to her chest. She turned on her attacker, bringing her arms around to clobber them in the face.

“DAMMIT, CAPTAIN IT’S US!” Kikki said, stepping in front of her with her golden fan drawn. Suki stopped in mid-flight, her knees buckling at the familiar figure before her. Her heart leaped into her throat and she turned to see Mei Lin with one hand to her bloody lip, and Qing picking herself up from the floor.

“Kikki?!” Suki gasped in disbelief.

“ _Spirits_ , Cap, you look like shit.”

“I feel like shit,” Suki said and held out her hands. Kikki sawed the ropes off in a trice and then handed Suki the dagger and a fan, as smoke started to fill the hallway. “What’s happening out there?”

Little Kikki shot her an impish grin as another explosion rocked the warehouse. “A distraction.”

“You up to a fight?” Mei Lin asked her, stepping over the body of one of the Smoke Demons they’d knocked out to get to the door.

Suki flexed her numb fingers, trying to get the feeling back in them. She pulled a bloody grin and turned back to Kikki, her reply dying on her lips. Framed in the entrance to the hallway was a hulking figure whose face looked far too much like the man Suki had killed earlier that night.

Shura’s son Fang met Suki’s gaze and pulled a menacing sneer and a sword out of a scabbard on his back. The other Warriors fell into formation behind Suki.

“Oh, I’m definitely ready for a fight.”

* * *

“What the fuck?” Kang burst out as he and Zuko rounded a corner and came face to face with a large warehouse skulking like a massive, menacing beast amongst the city streets. There was a cloud of smoke rising out of several windows, the thick gray smoke twisting like against the yellow dawn. As they’d run through the streets, he and Zuko had heard a series of explosions, which had rattled the windows of the drab little shops lining the streets in this part of the city.

Kang drew to a halt for a moment, as Zuko felt a flicker of hope in him. Somehow, someway, he knew that the Kyoshi Warriors were responsible. A smile hit his lips.

Kang reached back and grabbed Zuko by the front of his shirt. He hauled Zuko up off of his feet and snarled in his face. “WHAT DID YOU DO?”

“Nothing! I don’t know what’s going on!”

“You did this!” Kang said and then slammed Zuko to the ground. He put one foot on Zuko’s back, pinning him there. Zuko conjured flames, instincts reacting over his common sense.

“Do it. Attack me,” Kang said, pressing on Zuko’s lower back, his heavy boots digging in painfully. “You must not love that little bitch.”

Zuko bit down on his tongue, an angry retort dying in his throat. If he attacked Kang, who knew what that could mean for Suki? He let the flames die on his hands and relaxed into the cobblestoned street.

“Take me to your mother.”

Kang hauled him up off of the ground and twisted his arms behind him painfully. Zuko could have gotten away—he wasn’t bound—but they both knew that he wouldn’t. He had to make sure Suki had been freed.

And then…

Then he was going burn the place to the ground.

He was marched past alarmed guards, who seemed frantic at the explosions going on in the warehouse. There was a lot of activity; Smoke Demons were running everywhere, gathering weapons. As he was dragged inside the warehouse, he saw the cause of the explosions. Someone had burst the envelope of the balloon, setting fire to the gases within. The fire had caught the tanks, resulting in a massive debris field of twisted metal, silk, bodies and broken glass from the retractable roof, which had shattered in the explosion, raining down on the Smoke Demons.

There was blood everywhere. Smoke filled the air as the fire caught on the wooden floors and beams. No one seemed to know what to do. Zuko desperately searched the chaos-strewn warehouse for a sign of Suki, or any of the Kyoshi Warriors, but he didn’t see a thing. There were too many people, too much smoke. He could hear a woman’s voice piercing orders through the din.

Kang dragged him into the center of the debris and called his mother’s name with a desperate tone in his voice. He reached out and grabbed the nearest Smoke Demon with a jerk. “Where is my mother?”

“Kang! Darling!” Zuko turned on Lady Shura, who stumbled out of the smoke, her second-born at her side. She looked a little worse for wear. Her dress was covered in dark red blood, her fingers and face smeared with it. Her makeup had run in black rivers and her hair had come undone. Upon seeing her eldest son, she let out a sob. “Oh, my baby! I was so worried!”

“What happened?” Kang said, and then shoved Zuko forward.

Shura stomped her foot. “They’re trying to destroy me! YOU!” She seemed to have spotted Zuko, because she leveled her gaze on him with a snarl of rage, and launched herself at him. She slapped him across the face and he took the blow with barely a flinch. She grabbed him by the hair and dragged him toward her. “You did this, didn’t you? You’re trying to fuck me!”

“I assure you, Shura, the last thing I ever want to do is fuck _you,”_ Zuko said, and her eyes flashed with a mad rage that he’d never seen in her before.

“I’ll fucking destroy you, you scarred up little freak,” Shura said through her teeth. She shoved him back and snapped to her sons, “Kang, Quang, put him on his knees, where he belongs!”

Shura’s sons forced Zuko to his knees as Shura paced in front of him, her whole body vibrating with some manic force. “Where is Suki?”

“Your little bitch killed my son, my baby boy!” Shura snapped at him. “She has to pay! SHE HAS TO PAY FOR THIS!” She gestured to the chaos in the room, the smoke filling the air around them, the fires burning, the bodies. Firebenders were battling the blaze. It looked like they were winning. Zuko looked around the warehouse and saw a white face appear out of the shadows for a moment and then sink back into hiding. He fought a smile.

“Take me instead,” Zuko said, focusing on Shura again. “You’ve got what you wanted, Shura! I banished my sister, disinherited her, named Iroh as my heir and abdicated the throne! I did what you asked. Let Suki go!”

“Why would I do that? Why would I ever do that?” Shura said in a rush. “She killed my son. She _humiliated_ me just like that bitch Kiyo! I’ll see her sliced open and burned to ashes before I’d let her walk out of here alive.”

“I’m offering myself, Shura. Take the deal. I’ll cooperate. I’ll get Iroh to come. You know you can’t take the throne unless you marry him. He’ll marry you if you let me live. And if you let Suki live, I’ll make sure you get what’s coming to you.”

Shura cocked her head at him. “I could take the throne if I wanted!”

“Your claim wouldn’t be legitimate. The people would rebel. The Avatar would come and kick your ass off of the throne. Ask my father about that. Maybe you’ll get a cell next to him if you’re lucky. If you’re not, you’ll burn to death for your crimes.”

“You pardoned me, you little prick,” Shura said, pacing as she twisted her hands together. “You can’t do shit to me.”

“Pretty sure murdering me won’t win you any friends, Shura,” Zuko said. “Least of all with my uncle. I know you want him.”

Tears leaked out of her mad eyes. “He should have been mine! I loved him and he threw me aside!”

“Then let me help you get him. Give me Suki!”

Shura shook her head. “No. You’ll watch her die and then I’ll chain you to my wall. You’ll be my favorite little trophy, Zuko. You’ll be mine forever.”

“I’d rather die,” Zuko said and Shura lifted her hand, intent on slapping him. A familiar voice stopped her in mid-motion though.

“Bitch, if you put your hands on my boyfriend again you’ll have two sons to mourn!”


	28. Chapter 28

“SUKI!” Zuko exclaimed, his heart soaring instantly. He whipped his head toward the source of her voice, peering through the flames as Qing and Mei Lin pushed a man—Shura’s son Fang—down onto his knees. He was bleeding from a knife in the shoulder. Suki was behind him, and she had a rope around his neck; as he hit his knees, she put her foot up on his shoulder and pulled it tight. He choked, his face turning bright red.

“Hi, baby. Thanks for coming to get me,” Suki said, flashing him a quick grin as their gazes met. He could feel the emotion coming off of her, the fear in her eyes for him. He knew her well enough to know what she was thinking. She hated that he’d come for her, had put himself in danger.

He wondered if she knew that he’d abdicated the throne. If they lived, she’d probably kill him.

“Anytime, sweetheart,” he said and glanced back at Shura, who had turned toward her like a spitting, indignant cat cornered by a pack of vicious dogs.

“YOU LITTLE BITCH!” Shura screamed as Suki put one foot on her son’s shoulder and pulled the rope around his neck tighter, strangling him. “FANG! LET GO OF MY SON!”

“Let go of Zuko.”

“NEVER.”

Suki yanked the rope hard, tipping Fang’s head back. His tongue protruded from his mouth like a fat, wet slug.

“You should probably rethink that.”

Shura fisted her hands at her sides and then let out a frustrated scream that echoed throughout the smoke-filled warehouse. Qing, Mei Lin and Kikki spread out in a half-circle around Suki, fans and swords drawn. The Smoke Demons were gathering, hordes of them. Zuko saw firebenders, flames dancing above their hands, waiting for the signal to attack.

“You’re outnumbered, outmatched and out _classed_ ,” Shura said through her teeth. “If you kill my son, you’ll be a stain on the floor within seconds and you know it.”

“Worth it,” Suki said, her eyes flashing as she tightened the noose again.

“You heard her. She _wants_ to die. Oblige the little bitch,” Shura said to her soldiers, reaching over and grabbing Zuko’s hair with a hard clench. He winced as she forced his head back. “And you’re going to watch.”

Quang, who had a hold of Zuko’s left arm, suddenly let out a strangled sound. Shura’s head snapped up and she gasped in horror. Quang let go of Zuko and staggered back two steps, clutching the pommel of a red dagger that was buried in his heart.

“Darling?” Shura said in terrified confusion. “Quang? QUANG!”

Another dagger took him in the throat and he choked, falling to his knees in front of Zuko as everyone stared in shock. Zuko’s heart pumped hard and he looked up, searching for Mai. He’d know those daggers anywhere.

Shura fell down next to her son, wailing loudly as Quang went still on the floor, blood slowly spreading on the cracked concrete. “Darling… Get up. Mummy needs you to get up…” she sobbed into his hair and then let out an animalistic howl of rage, her head snapping up.

“KILL THEM ALL!” she bellowed, pointing her bloody fingers at Suki.

At the same moment, the doors burst open, and a large creature came tearing into the room. Zuko recognized the woman on its back. June pulled her shirshu to a halt in the middle of the chaotic warehouse. She had a haughty expression on her face, her mouth twisted.

“Am I too late to join the party?” June drawled.

And then all hell broke loose.

Zuko immediately turned on Kang, delivering a flaming uppercut that snapped Kang’s head back. He let go of Zuko’s arm, stumbling backward. Around them the Smoke Demons erupted, closing in on the Kyoshi Warriors. He saw Mei Lin stab someone in the eye, and then kick him away from her. As Kang recovered and launched himself at Zuko, he flipped to his feet and shot a volley of fire at him.

Kang avoided the worst of it, covering his face with his meaty arms. His skin sizzled and he gritted his teeth, swinging at Zuko, who danced backward out of the way.

He saw movement out the corner of his eye and watched as Chao-Ahn, Tam, Rin and Xiuying dropped down out of the shadows, landing amidst the Smoke Demons with their fans out and looks of determination on their faces. They immediately joined the fight, hitting nerves with a rapid fire series of jabs that sent swords skittering out of loose fingers, and bodies dropping to the ground. June was in the fight, her shirshu striking out with its toxic tongue, felling bodies left and right as June whipped her sword at anyone taking aim at her mount.

He tried to see Suki through the chaos, but there was too much smoke, too many bodies. Lady Shura had disappeared into the melee. He hoped she didn’t get away, but he was in no position to go after her.

Instead, he concentrated on Kang, who was coming for him like a raging moose lion. Zuko blocked blow after blow, ducking and spinning, delivering a kick to Kang’s face that would have knocked a smaller man to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Kang shrugged it off, caught Zuko’s ankle and flipped him to the ground with a hard slam that rattled every bone in his body. A booted foot came down on his stomach, grinding him into the ground. He grabbed Kang’s foot, wrapped his legs around Kang’s and then shoved his foot into the Smoke Demon’s crotch.

Kang gave a harsh cry as Zuko twisted to the side, knocking Kang down to the ground with him. Kang landed face down and Zuko immediately let him go as Kang wriggled around, slamming his elbow back into Zuko’s face. Pain made stars burst to life in Zuko’s eyes.

He rolled away from Kang and flipped to his feet, tears in his eyes from what felt like a broken cheekbone. Kang got to his feet and lifted his meaty, scabbed fists. The fists of a brawler.

Several Smoke Demons crowded around Zuko, but Kang stilled them with a growled shout.

“NO! Leave him! He’s mine!”

The Smoke Demons immediately dashed back into the fight, leaving Zuko and Kang staring at each other.

Zuko licked his lips, trying to focus on Kang, but the fight around him had erupted into more shouts. Soldiers wearing Fire Nation colors had burst into the building. Fire filled the air, along with the clash of metal on metal and pain- and rage-filled screams, which echoed in the smokey air like ghostly cries.

The unchecked fire was spreading, aided by the volleys of flame being thrown around the room by the Smoke Demons and the soldiers. A gaggle of earthbenders were tearing up the ground, taking out soldiers.

Zuko tried to ignore all of that, focusing instead on his immediate surroundings, and Shura’s eldest son, who looked like he wanted to rip his head off with his bare hands. Zuko had a feeling that he probably could, _if_ Zuko let him get his hands on him. He had no intentions on letting that happen.

He lifted his fists and gestured Kang to come for him. Kang dived at him, swinging one massive fist. Zuko ducked it, coming up beneath Kang’s guard and slamming his fist to his ribs with a hard smash. He felt several ribs break. His knee came up next, slamming into Kang’s middle. Kang smashed his forehead into Zuko’s, making blood burst into both of their mouths.

Zuko grunted and conjured flames in his fist, gathering them in a blaze. Then he struck.

Kang went up like a funeral pyre, his clothing catching immediately. The flames spread up his black shirt, licking at the exposed bits of his skin. He screeched in pain and let go of Zuko, stumbling backward and batting at the flames racing along his clothing.

It was too late though. Within seconds he was engulfed in the flames, a walking candle whose scream of pain filled Zuko’s ears, and echoed through the smoke like a demon’s howl. Kang felled to the ground, the smell of burning flesh hitting the air, his skin charring and melting.

Zuko watched him burn, pity welling in him as phantom pains tingled around the scar on his face. He started to look around for a knife, anything to end Lord Kang’s agony, but another Smoke Demon stepped into view and he realized there was no time for pity.

Another enemy joined him, and then another. One by one, fire flickered to life in their hands. Zuko rolled his shoulders a little and settled into a fighting stance.

“This ought to be fun.”

* * *

Suki dodged a sword blade that came jabbing at her mid-section, swinging her fan down to knock it aside. Sweat drenched her back in the hot room; the fires were spreading around them, filling the old warehouse with thick, roiling smoke.

She could barely make out friend and foe through the haze, but she saw Fire Nation colors amidst the soldiers, the red bright against Smoke Demon black. She had lost sight of the other Kyoshi Warriors pretty much immediately, but she knew they were still there, fighting.

She darted to the side, turning her fan to strike at the Smoke Demon’s face. The bladed edge opened a slice and he howled as she brought her other fist into his jaw with a hard crack that shoved him back into the seething mass of fighters.

Zuko.

She needed to get to Zuko.

She spotted a band of firebenders across the room, their bright flashes of flames like a beacon in the smoky din. Somehow, she knew that Zuko was the focus of their attack. She shouldered her way past a pair of grappling fighters, instinct and fear driving her toward the flames.

Someone grabbed her hair and she whipped around, breaking their hold with a snarl, only to find herself face to face with Shura’s son Fang, whom she had lost her hold on once the Smoke Demons had swarmed her from on all sides. His meaty face was red, his lips open in a snarl. There were red and purple marks on his thick neck where she had tried to strangle him to death in front of his mother, and a bloody wound in his shoulder where she had stabbed him during their brief fight in the hallway.

He had the slippery knife in his hands now and he glared at her with violent intent.

Suki licked her ragged lips and then nodded. “All right, let’s do this.”

Fang sliced at her with the knife and she avoided it, stepping backward neatly. It sliced the air in front of her nose as he advanced on her. A series of hard jabs narrowly avoided her mid-section. She moved  the fan into position, blocking each jab of the knife as they worked their way through the soldiers.

Someone slammed into her from the side, knocking her aside and straight into Fang’s knife. She felt red-hot pain as a slice opened on her arm. Blood poured out of the ragged rent in her sleeve.

She blew out a breath, ignored the pain and jabbed her elbow down on Fang’s arm. Her left hand came up, the heel of her palm snapping upward into Fang’s nose with all of the force she could muster.

His head snapped back, his eyes popping open as the bone in his nose was driven deep into his brain. Suki lifted her leg and kneed him in the balls, then rammed his chest with her shoulder. He went flying backward and fell to the ground, taking several fighters down with him. She didn’t stop to see if he moved again. She had a feeling he wasn’t ever going to get up again.

If Shura lived she was going to have to plan a _lot_ of funerals.

Suki turned in the direction of the firebenders again. The smoke was getting thicker. The roof was on fire now, flames licking up the sides of the old warehouse. The heat was becoming unbearable and she choked on the smoke.

“Zuko?!”

Her voice was lost in the din. She suddenly saw General Mak on her left, his sword swinging in a deadly arc, taking out fighters left and right. He spotted her and jerked his head in the direction of the firebenders, confirming her suspicions.

“Here! Get to Zuko!” Mak said, and slung something off of his shoulder. He tossed a scabbard at her and she caught it in one hand, eying the dual dao swords she had last seen Zuko wearing. She slipped her fan into her belt, shouldered the scabbard and pulled both swords.

She started cutting a bloody swath through the fighters, stabbing and slicing at anyone wearing Smoke Demon colors. The heat of the fire-fight blasted at her as she approached it. She took a few hits, turned on her attackers and chopped off the hands threatening her.

As she cut a bloody swath through the melee, she finally spotted Zuko, her heart squeezing hard in her chest. He was fighting in a circle of firebenders, keeping them at bay with all of the skill of a master. His shirt was half-burned off, his skin raw and red beneath. He was covered in sweat, a desperate look on his face. His hair was down, wild, unbound, blood on his mouth. He was also slowing down.

Suki took a running leap, twisted in mid-air and came down behind two of the firebenders. She flicked the swords out, taking their heads off at the shoulders. Their heads rolled free and across the floor, their bodies dropping.

Zuko blocked a volley of flame and then spotted her, and his expression was exalted.

“Suki…”

“Can’t stay out of trouble, can you?” she shot at him, fighting a smile as the other firebenders wheeled on her. She tossed Zuko one of the dao swords as the two firebenders repositioned themselves to take on both of them.

“I could say the same for you,” Zuko said as she stepped over the dead firebenders. “If we make it through this alive, remind me to kiss you.”

“If we make it through this alive, you better do more than kiss me,” she said, and a slow, easy smile crossed Zuko’s bloody mouth. She turned back to the firebenders. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

They attacked, tossing fireballs and bursts of flame in her direction. She ducked and dodged them, rolling to the side and to her feet. The move brought her back to back with Zuko, who redirected a volley of flames that came sizzling their way.

She caught his gaze for a split-second, perfect understanding passing between them. Then they were both moving, the twin swords in their hands swinging. She dodged more fire, felt it sear her hair, but rolled forward and got beneath one of the firebender’s guards. The sword took him in the middle and she cut him down like a tree. Beside her, Zuko did the same to the other firebender.

“THE ROOF IS GOING!” someone screamed from within the wall of smoke. Suki’s head snapped up, seeing the burning roof above them. Huge, flaming beams were falling down, taking out soldiers and Smoke Demons alike.

“We gotta go!” Suki said as Zuko reached out and grabbed her hand. People were rushing for door, slipping on fallen bodies, and pools of blood.

A flaming beam came down in front of them, but Zuko vaulted it. She jumped too and he caught her, setting her on her feet as more of the roof came crashing down around them. Through the blaze of the heat, the haze of the smoke and the press of the bodies, they made their way through the nearest broken window, jumping through it and landing in the street in a tucked roll.

They spilled into the street together and Zuko’s arms went around her as he dragged her back across the cobblestones. Suki turned her gaze on the burning structure and watched as the roof caved in completely. One brick wall collapsed inward in a hail of debris and dust and whooshing flame.

She thought of the other Kyoshi Warriors, fear slamming through her veins. What if they hadn’t gotten out in time?

“There are still people in there,” she said and felt Zuko’s arm tighten around her waist. “We have to do something.”

“The fire’s too big, Suki. It has too much fuel,” he said in a flat tone, and she knew that he was just as scared as she was, as worried.

Suki cursed under her breath and looked around at the soldiers in the street. There were wounded people everywhere. Most of the people were wearing Fire Nation army clothing. The few wearing Smoke Demon black were on the ground, being bound by soldiers. She didn’t see the familiar green and gold uniforms anywhere.

Numb disbelief spread in her. Even if they had won, even if if the Smoke Demons had been taken out tonight…it would never be worth the lives of her friends. her sisters.

“They got out,” Zuko said softly in her ear as she shook in place, the adrenaline and emotion overtaking her. She felt sick to her stomach, her eyes on the lurid red flames burning in the early morning sunlight. “I know they did.”

She turned and pressed her face to his chest, her body shaking as grief overwhelmed her.

“I can’t lose them, Zuko…”

“Lose who?” Kikki asked, making Suki’s head snap up. Her heart soared as she saw the Kyoshi Warriors limping through the crowd, soot- and blood-covered, and looking a little worse for wear. But they were all alive. Chao-Ahn looked to be the worst off, half of her clothing burned away, the skin of her legs raw beneath it. Rin and Tam were supporting her between them.

“Is she okay?” Zuko asked, starting toward her. Tam nodded.

“She got trapped under a beam. We managed to dig her out just before the roof gave completely,” she said as Zuko scooped Chao-Ahn up.

“We need to get her medical attention. These burns are serious,” he said, taking point. Suki and the other Warriors fell in behind him. It wasn’t long before they spotted General Mak, who was shouting orders at his men. The Smoke Demons who had made it out of the warehouse alive were being lined up against the wall, their hands and feet bound behind them. When Mak spotted them, his shock was written plain on his face.

“Fire Lord Zuko! You’re alive!”

“Against all odds, it seems so,” Zuko said as Mak spotted Chao-Ahn’s injuries. He called for a healer and one came over, taking Chao-Ahn from him with a soft curse. Suki took Chao-Ahn’s hand as the girl turned pained eyes on her.

“You’ll be okay,” she said and Chao-Ahn gave her a tight smile.

“So long as we got you back, Cap,” she said as the healer took her over the makeshift triage they’d set up in an apothecary on the corner. Suki gestured for Rin and Tam to go with them and turned back to Zuko.

“I had guards posted on the perimeter. None of these bastards got away. We’ve capture about fifty of them,” Mak said, gesturing to the Smoke Demons lined up along the street under heavy guard.

“What the hell were you even doing here?” Zuko asked. “I pardoned them, Mak. You know that.”

“Did you? I suppose we’ll let the court decide if any of us broke the law then,” Mak said with a vicious smile. “As for how I got here, I had Mai follow you. I knew you’d march into Shura’s clutches and I wasn’t about to let you do that alone. The minute you left I gathered as many troops as I could and we marched down after you. After those explosions, the warehouse wasn’t hard to find.”

“Where’s Mai?”

Suki looked around. She hadn’t spotted the woman in the fight, but she had seen her daggers take out Quang. She had to be close. “Did she make it out?”

“I don’t know,” Zuko said and wiped a hand down his face. “I hope so. I saw June in there too. I…”

Zuko hung his head, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. “What about Shura? Did any of your men capture her? I lost her during the fight.”

“I did too,” Suki admitted. “Shura’s no fighter. You know she ran for it the first opportunity she got.”

“She did,” Mai drawled behind her as she came limping out of the smoke-filled street, pushing a bound Lady Shura in front of her. Mai’s bruised face was smug beneath her bandages. She shoved Shura forward and the woman stumbled across the uneven street and hit her knees before Zuko. “She slipped out when Mak’s soldiers burst in. I saw her running from the rafters.”

Hatred seethed on the rebel's face as she struggled to get to her feet again. Zuko handed Suki his sword, and she sheathed it and its twin on her back, watching as Zuko surveyed the woman on her knees before him.

“Where are my sons, you little motherfucker?!” Shura said, her voice wavering.

“What kind of language is that for a lady?” Zuko said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“FUCK YOU!”

“I killed Fang,” Suki said, stepping up beside Zuko. “That’s three sons you’ve lost tonight, Shura.”

“Four,” Zuko said with a hard glint in his eye. “I burned Lord Kang to death. All of your sons are dead, Shura.”

All of the red leaked out of Shura’s face and she turned as pale as new milk. Her chin wobbled and she burst into great, heaving tears.

“You killed my babies… YOU KILLED MY BABIES!” she screeched and fell forward onto the street. Suki watched her sobbing. A part of her almost felt pity for the woman, but then she remembered Shura’s encouragements as Li-Shang had put his hands on her.

Her pity disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“They should have been the Fire Lord! You’re half the man they were! You’re nothing!” Shura screamed through her tears and the snot leaking down her nose and chin. “I had it all planned out! I worked so hard! YOU RUINED IT!”

“You honestly thought it would work?” Zuko said, pacing in front of Shura. “You really, honestly thought that I would let you take me hostage and force my uncle into marrying you? I wouldn’t wish marriage to you on my worst enemy, let alone my beloved uncle!”

“FUCK IROH!” Shura raged, sitting up again. Her eyes were wild. “He didn’t know a good thing when he had it! I was going to murder him on our wedding night and take the throne! My sons would have inherited it! WE WOULD HAVE RULED THIS FUCKING NATION! YOU RUINED IT! YOU AND THAT LITTLE PAINTED BITCH! I’LL HAVE THE BOTH OF YOU KILLED!”

Her eyes snapped to Suki, who glared right back at her. Suki let a smirk of triumph cross her lips. The sight of it seemed to enrage Shura even more.

“With what army, Shura? You played your hand and you lost. You could have won, you know. You had us on the run. You had us scared. You got overconfident,” Suki said softly.

“All your plotting and all your planning…and do you even know where you went wrong?” Zuko asked her, soft pity in his voice. Shura shook and a ragged sob left her. “You went after the woman I love.”

“I still beat you,” Shura said, her voice rising in volume. “I STILL BEAT YOU! You abdicated the throne! If I’ve done nothing else, at least you’re no longer the Fire Lord! You pardoned me too! You have nothing on me! They’ll let me go! I’ll find another way! I WILL! THE THRONE IS MINE!”

Zuko glared down at her and then shook his head.

“Gag her and take her out of my sight. Put her in a cell until her court date,” he said dispassionately. Mak gestured to his soldiers and they came and gathered Shura up, clamping on heavy manacles. Suki touched Zuko’s arm as they watched Shura being hauled away by the soldiers.

He let out a sigh of relief and turned to look at her. He studied her face for a long moment and then bent and kissed her temple, pushing his face against hers. Suki buried her face in his long hair, breathing in the scent of smoke and flame and Zuko for a long moment.

“Are you okay?”

“Been better,” she admitted, tilting her face back. “You?”

“Been better.”

“Who do I have to screw to get a drink around here?” June said as she and her shirshu came limping out of the smoke, both of them looking charred and bloody.

“June!” Mai exclaimed. “I thought you didn’t make it out!”

“Almost didn’t. I had to fight my way through a whole band of earthbenders,” June groused as she glanced around the street, clocking the handcuffed Smoke Demons and Shura’s sobbing form being hauled off to prison. “So, did we win?”

Zuko glanced at Suki and then took her hand. She squeezed it hard, telling him without words that she was never going to let go.

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “I think we won.”


	29. Chapter 29

“What do you mean I’m still the Fire Lord?” Zuko exclaimed, staring at his secretary in open-mouthed shock. Fen stood before him with wide eyes and a grim mouth, clutching a folder of papers to his thin chest. “I abdicated! It was official, Fen.”

“He’s right, Fen. I witnessed it,” General Mak spoke up from his position in front of the windows to Zuko’s office. Zuko glanced at the others. Kikki, Xiuying, Mei Lin, and Qing were standing at attention in the corner, all of them looking bruised and battered. Chao-Ahn was in the healing ward and would be for some time. Rin and Tam were with her. Mai was sitting in a chair, looking as if she were fighting sleep; she was paler than usual and he knew that her injuries had taken a toll on her. Her help had been priceless during the fight though. She had been the one to contact June and brought her in to the fray. Her help had been invaluable too.

June was helping Mak’s forces identify and interrogate former Smoke Demons at the moment. He’d have to remember to thank the woman the next time he saw her. Maybe he’d buy her a drink.

Fen’s eyes darted to the side and he swallowed a little. “Well, see, the thing is… I may or may not have burned the documents you signed about five minutes after you signed them.”

Zuko sank back in his chair, his sore and bloody body too exhausted to move. He ran a soot-streaked hand down his bruised and swollen face and glanced over at Suki, who was sitting on the couch, looking equally as exhausted as Nam-Kyu stitched up a long knife wound on her arm. Suki was still covered in blood, her uniform torn, her makeup smeared.

Despite that, she looked beautiful. Beautiful and alive. It took all of his strength to tear his eyes away from her and turn them back on Fen.

“You burned them?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Well, the thing is, they sort of weren’t official anyway. I…I neglected to get a Fire Sage to provide their seal on the documents before you signed them. Which, as you know, is required of any official decree made by the Fire Lord,” Fen said quickly. “You were making a mistake, Zuko. I couldn’t allow you to abdicate or pardon the Smoke Demons. You weren’t thinking clearly. I… I’m sorry, but you weren’t!”

Zuko sighed as he studied Fen for a long moment. “You’re right, Fen. I wasn’t. I let Shura manipulate me. She got under my skin, and frankly, her campaign of mistrust worked. I was afraid of faking it. I was convinced she’d know about it.”

“I know, sire. I… I just did what I thought I had to. As your secretary, it’s my job to handle your paperwork correctly and… And I hope you’re not angry with me.”

Zuko shook his head and then laughed. “I’m not angry, Fen. What you did ensured that there will be no legal hurdles to imprisoning the Smoke Demons now. We can put them away for good.”

Fen visibly relaxed and a small smile hit his lips. “Good. Is there anything you need, Fire Lord Zuko? Food?”

“Food would be good. Get enough for everyone. I think we’re all starving,” he said, realizing how exhausted he was. It had been too long since he’d eaten, and far too long since he’d had a moment to breathe. What he really wanted was a moment with Suki alone.

“I’ll have it served in the dining hall within the hour. You, uh, may wish to wash up, sire.”

Zuko glanced down at his grimy, blood-covered hands. The urge to scrub himself raw came over him as he watched Fen walk out of the office, leaving Zuko and the others alone.

“So you’re still the Fire Lord,” Mak said with approval in his voice. Zuko turned to meet his gaze.

“Seems so.”

“And we have leverage against the Smoke Demons. The ones that survived the fire, in any case,” Mak said, staring into the hot sunlight pouring in through the windows. “I have my men searching the streets. At least two of the bastards have turned, now that they believe they won’t be killed for talking. It seems Shura had a zero tolerance policy against traitorous actions.”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Suki said bitterly, wincing as Nam-Kyu sewed up her wound.

“It certainly did,” Mak replied just as bitterly. “What are you going to do with her, Zuko?”

Zuko thought a long moment, studying Suki’s blood-splattered face, the cuts on the corners of her mouth, the bruises on her face. He thought of Aiko’s broken body. He thought of Ty Lee’s tiny body hooked to machines that kept her breathing. He thought of Mai, injured and swaying. He thought of Sokka, tattooed and ragged, and his sister, fragile and damaged but trying to be good.

Shura had used them all to pursue a selfish dream of power. His friends, his family, had suffered because of one woman’s blind ambitions and insane idea that the world owed her something. She had fractured his trust in his Council, in his servants, his armed forces, his whole way of life.

She had taken Suki. She had wanted to kill her, and he knew, from the glazed look in his Suki’s eyes, and the blood on her face, that Shura had let her son put his hands on her.

He wasn’t feeling particularly merciful. Not after everything that had happened.

“She’ll go on trial for her crimes. If she’s found guilty, I’ll use my discretion.”

“You’ll commute her sentence like you did your father? Prison?” Mak asked.

Zuko shook his head. “No. I afforded my father a life term because he was my father and because I couldn’t stand the thought of being the cause of his death. Shura is nothing to me. An example has to be made to others who may think this monarchy is weak. If convicted, Shura will burn for her crimes before the whole of the Fire Nation. And I’ll light her pyre myself.”

He met Suki’s gaze and saw the tighten of her lips as Nam-Kyu finished up bandaging her wound.

“You’ve never given out the death penalty, Zuko. Are you sure about that?” Mak pressed.

“I killed a handful of men this morning. I burned one of them alive and I would do any of those things again if necessary. I’m sure,” Zuko said heavily and then stood, facing them all. “I want to thank you all. All of you have proven your loyalty to me a thousand times over. That’s no small thing.”

“Zuko…” Mai started, but he held up his hand, stopping her.

“Mai, your courage and sacrifice is what saved all of us. Without you, we might never have known there were people intent on destroying us until it was too late. You infiltrated them and worked to uncover as much about the Smoke Demons as you could, at the risk of death. Thank you. That means more to me than you know. I’d like to honor you with the highest commendation a civilian of the Fire Nation can receive, the Special Services to the Crown.”

Mai opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again. She flushed and mumbled, “Thank you.”

Zuko’s smile was grim and tired as he turned to the Kyoshi Warriors. “I want to thank all of you for what you did tonight. I don’t have the words, ladies. Each and every one of you are invaluable to me, to the crown, to this Nation. The Kyoshi Warriors will receive Medals of Honor. I’m also pardoning Aiko and awarding her the same honor. She’ll receive a state funeral. Her mother as well.”

He saw Suki’s eyes fill with tears as he looked down at her. She cradled her bandaged arm to her chest, looking overwhelmed. He knew how she felt. 

“Sokka and Azula will also receive pardons for anything they did while working undercover and I’ll honor them with awards too. I know a medal isn’t much, it doesn’t encompass what you’ve done for me or my gratitude, but…” He stared into Suki’s blue eyes. “I hope it’s enough.”

“It’s enough,” Suki said softly and he let out a breath.

“Oh, I don’t get a shiny metal? No one appreciates the things I go through, patching up uncooperative patients, massaging hearts for an hour, and having my healing ward turn into a bloodbath!” Nam-Kyu groused as she packed up her supplies bag and stood with a stoop-shouldered surliness.

Zuko found himself grinning. “You’re right, Nam-Kyu. I’ve put you through the wringer the past couple of weeks. You deserve a medal too. Mak? Do you know if we have a Nosy Old Gossip of the Year Award?”

Nam-Kyu pursed her lips as she walked past him toward the door. “Go fuck yourself, you little shit. And put some ice on that cheekbone.”

“Nice to see you too,” he said as she walked out of his office. He turned back to the others with a sigh. His gaze went back to Suki, who was touching the cuts at the corners of her mouth. Nam-Kyu had cleaned them, but they looked bloody and raw. “We should all get cleaned up. Fen’s laying out food in the dining room if you want any. Take the rest of the day. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to bathe, eat and then sleep for ten hours. I suggest you do the same.”

That seemed to break up the sudden silence. Mai stood with a sway, and Kikki gave her a shoulder to lean on. He watched the Kyoshi Warriors limp out of the room with Mai in tow. General Mak followed them, leaving he and Suki alone.

He stood in front of her as she sat on the couch, her head down, staring at her bloody fingers. He started to say something, but a knock on the door startled him. “Yes?”

Fen opened the door cautiously, his arms full of clothing. “For you, sire. I’ve taken the liberty of having food delivered to the Captain’s room, as well as the dining room, if the two of you would prefer to dine alone.”

He glanced at Suki and then back at Fen. “Thank you, Fen. I think I would definitely prefer to eat in Captain Suki’s room today. Could you see to it that we’re not disturbed for the rest of the afternoon?”

“Of course, sire,” Fen said, putting his clothing down. He bowed and left the room, leaving Zuko to turn back to Suki, who was standing a bit shakily.

He gathered up his clothing and put one hand around her as they walked. She’d gotten banged up during the fight and he knew that she had bruises along her body. The fact that she wasn’t complaining was pretty miraculous. His face felt like it was on fire from where Kang had hit him. Nam-Kyu’s advice about the ice seemed like something he should be taking right about now.

They walked in silence for a while, passing soldiers at attention. Security in the palace hadn’t been relaxed. He doubt it would for a long time, not until they were sure all of the Smoke Demons had been caught.

“You think your room is safe?”

“Safe enough,”Suki said shortly. “Safer than yours, anyway. First thing tomorrow we hire an earthbender to find every exit in and out of this palace and close them off. And you’re moving your suite.”

“Definitely,” he agreed. Even if they blocked off the tunnel in his room, he knew he’d never sleep in there comfortably again. It was a shame too. He’d loved that suite. “Maybe you could move in with me then,” he said lightly and Suki let out a little chuckle.

“Won’t _that_ set off the rumor mill,” she said flatly as they walked into her suite.

“I’m serious,” he said as he put his clothing down on the bed. He loved Suki’s room, the earth tones, greens and blues and golds. There were splashes of red around too, things she’d bought in the marketplaces of the Fire Nation. A collection of fans took up one wall. Her desk was neat and orderly, her weapons stand full of polished swords and oiled leather armor. Her paint pots sat on a small stand beside a mirror and he could just imagine her standing there everyday painting her face.

The scent of her was everywhere and it made his heart ache. He could imagine himself wrapped up in her world, her things, her body, for the rest of his life.

“You want me to move in with you?” Suki said as she walked into the bathing chamber and started the shower. Steam rose as the water pounded down. He followed her into the chamber and shrugged.

“I’m saying I wouldn’t mind if you did,” he explained, reaching for the ties on Suki’s ruined uniform. She allowed him to slowly pull it off of her, careful of her bruises. She was sticky all over, the uniform stiff with dried blood. The bandage on her arm was soaked through with blood already, and he watched as she took it off, revealing the stitched wound. The knife wound she’d taken in her shoulder looked angry beneath the blood splatter. Her body was bruising black and blue. Her makeup was smeared. Her fingernails were broken and ragged.

She was beautiful and alive… No thanks to him. Guilt hit him, hard and quick. He couldn’t stop it. He had no right to ask her to move in with him and he knew it. Being with him had made her a target.

He undressed with her and together they climbed into the shower.

It was slow going, washing the blood and soot and grime off of each other. They didn’t talk much. He shampooed her hair and then helped her rinse it. He gently cleaned her face, wiping away her makeup and the blood of the man she’d killed. Beneath, her skin was beautiful and bruised.

They stood in the water until the water sluicing off them was no longer pink. Suki sighed and pressed her face into his shoulder, careful to avoid the singe on his chest. He put his arms around her, his nose in her clean, wet hair. The hot water beat down on his back, relaxing the tense muscles in his shoulders as he held her.

“Did he hurt you?” he finally said.

Suki started, looking up at him with wide eyes. “What?”

“Li-Shang.”

Suki swallowed and refused to meet his gaze. “No. He tried. I killed him.”

“He was going to…”

“Yes.”

Zuko felt anger flood him, a savage kind of murderous anger that filled him from heart to head. Only the fact that Suki had killed the man made it bearable. The fact that she had been hurt, threatened, touched, filled him regret and guilt.

“They took you because of me,” he said slowly, his voice full of emotion.

“No, they didn’t,” Suki said immediately. “I humiliated Shura when I tossed her out of your room naked. That’s why she sent that assassin after us on the balcony. She was angry. That’s why she killed Aiko. She was taunting me, not you.”

“But she still took you to get to me.”

“Maybe, but when Li-Shang came for me, he could have killed me. If his mother had ordered him to kill me, I wouldn’t be here. She needed me alive to bait you, Zuko. You saved my life.”

Zuko shook his head. “That’s a fucked up way of looking at it.”

“I’ve had a fucked up day. And it doesn’t stop it from being true, so stop feeling guilty.”

“I don’t–”

Suki put one finger on his lips, stilling his protest. “I know you. I know what you’re feeling and I want you to stop it. I’m alive. He didn’t hurt me. I killed him. We took down the Smoke Demons. Shura’s in a prison cell mad with grief over her sons’ deaths. She’ll burn for her crimes. We survived.”

Zuko studied her face. “I thought I’d lost you. I was so scared that you’d been killed Suki. I was ready to do anything to get you back.”

“Like abdicate the throne?” she said and reached behind him, turning off the water. She turned away and stepped out of the shower, leaving him to follow.

“I did what I had to do.”

“You gave up your throne for me, Zuko, that’s… I…” she said, wrapping a towel around herself. Zuko grabbed one and wrapped it around his waist. “I feel like I failed you.”

Zuko touched her wet arm, turning her back toward him in the steamy bathroom. “Failed me? Why do you think that you failed me?”

“Because,” she said slowly. “Because it’s my job to protect you from threats, from people who want to hurt you, Zuko. I shouldn’t have let myself get taken. I wasn’t thinking. I let down my guard. And she used your feelings for me to force you into something you shouldn’t have been forced into doing. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, Suki. I need you to know that I would have done anything—anything!–Shura demanded just to know you were safe. They had you and they were going to hurt you and I knew it. Giving up the throne… I would make the same choice again, without hesitation, because to me there is no choice. You mean more to me than a crown and I won't apologize for that. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Suki said and relaxed against his chest again. He pulled her into his arms, smoothing his hands down her wet hair. “But you need to promise me something.”

“Anything, baby.”

“You can’t put yourself in danger to save me again. If something had happened to you tonight… It would kill me, okay? I can’t lose you.”

“I feel the same way.”

“No, no! It doesn’t work that way,” she said, pulling back, her jaw set with determination. “I’m your bodyguard. I step in front of swords for you. I watch your back, it’s not the other way around. That is not how this works!”

Zuko caught her face in his hands, searching her face for a long moment. Then he lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her lips gently. When he pulled away, she swallowed hard, her hands clutching his bruised shoulders.

“I can’t go back, Suki,” he said regretfully. “I’m in love with you. That means I can’t let you put yourself in harm’s way just for me. I can’t. I’d die for you. I respect you and I trust you, but if you died to protect me, I’d never forgive myself.”

“Then I can’t be your bodyguard any longer. Not if it puts you in danger.”

Zuko nodded. “Okay, so you’re not my bodyguard any longer.”

She looked uncomfortable and sad. “Then what am I? What is the point of me being here if I’m not working?”

Zuko chewed on his bottom lip for a moment and then kissed her forehead. “Let me think about that, okay? For now, let’s just… Let’s just be together. If you still want to be together?”

Suki touched his chest, tracing the edges of the singe on his skin. “You know I do. I know we’ve only been together for a couple of extremely stress-filled days, but… I do love you. I know it in my bones. Everyone keeps telling me I’m not good enough for you, that I’m some dirt kingdom whore--and I cannot stress enough how tired I am of hearing that--but when you look at me I can’t remember a word they’ve said.”

“Who’s been saying that about you? I’ll banish them.”

“A bunch of spoiled little rich girls who want to marry you. And some of your Council. And Shura.”

“Well, I don’t know if you know this, but I’m not interested in a bunch of spoiled little rich girls. The only woman I wanted at that ball was you. And as for my Council… You let me handle them. I just got you, Suki… I don’t intend to let you go. Whatever problems we have, we can work them out. Fuck everyone else.”

Suki smiled slightly and he bent and kissed her lips again. When he pulled away, she tilted back her head and gazed into his eyes, a look of wonder on her face. It was the look of love. He knew in that moment that he would be addicted to that look for the rest of his life.


	30. Chapter 30

_Two Months Later…_

“Lady Shura, you have been convicted on all counts of arson, theft, treason, terrorism, blackmail, torture, conspiracy, conspiracy to commit murder, murder, attempted regicide, and attempted assassination by a group of your peers. A sentence has been handed out by those peers as death by fire, in the oldest tradition of the Fire Nation. As the Fire Lord, the ultimate decision as to your fate falls upon my shoulders. It is within my power to commute your death sentence to life in prison. I want you to know that, Lady Shura. I also want you to know that, while it is within my power to show you mercy and spare your life, I am not inclined to grant you that mercy. Your sentence will be carried out immediately, by my own hand.”

Zuko’s words rang out in the courtyard, where members of the Royal Court, the Council, military officials, judges, Fire Sages, and the common people of the Fire Nation were gathered. In the center of the courtyard, tied to a stake, was Lady Shura.

She was dressed in her finest clothing, a deep red velvet dress that flattered her ample figure. She looked like a tiny jewel tied to a rough beam, piles of oil-soaked wood beneath her. Her face was a blank mask, her skin pale and sallow from her incarceration.

Suki couldn’t tear her eyes away from the woman, the cause of so much suffering and fear. She stood a little behind Zuko, one hand on her fan. The Kyoshi Warriors were spread out, watching for signs of trouble. Iroh stood on Zuko’s right, a grave look on his face as he stared at Lady Shura. He disapproved of Zuko’s decision, but hadn’t done anything to stop it, leaving the decision in Zuko’s hands.

“Then what are you waiting for? Do it,” Shura said in a shaking voice that carried. “I’ll be with my sons again. Anything is better than living without them.”

Zuko took a steadying breath and walked forward, closing the space between them. He stopped ten feet away and met Shura’s watery, terror-filled eyes. Suki had to give her credit; she had shown remarkable calm in the face of her own death. At the trial she had been mute, slumping in her seat and refusing to answer questions. The trial had been over quickly, the evidence overwhelming. Twelve of the highest ranking members of the Smoke Demons had been put to death already. The rest had been given life sentences.

Suki watched dispassionately as Zuko dropped into a firebending form, flames growing in his hands, the sunlight glinting off of the golden, flame-shaped crown in his long black hair. Shura lifted her chin and closed her eyes as Zuko threw the flames at the wood at her feet. The pyre went up with a hot flash, the flames rising in a lusty rush. Her dress caught fire instantly and flames crawled up her body, devouring her.

Zuko stood very still, not turning away from the sight of the woman on fire before him. Shura’s screams pierced the air, making Suki’s stomach turn. She refused to look away as well; she wanted to watch as Aiko’s murderer died. She saw Iroh turn away though, a sad look on his face.

It was over in a few minutes, Shura’s screams fading into the flames, the smoke rising from the pyre twisting like a demon in the air. Zuko didn’t move an inch, watching the fire until there was nothing left but ashes.

* * *

“I know you disapproved,” Zuko said later that evening in his office. Iroh sat in a chair, sipping steaming hot tea. His face was lined, his eyes grave and sad as he stared into the dark depths of his tea. “You think I should have commuted her sentence.”

Iroh glanced up at him and then sighed a little. “I do not know what I think. When I lost my son, I lost my taste for death. I saw peace where others saw war and swore never to take another life. But I am a realist, and while I have sworn myself to peace, I understand why you made your choice, Zuko. I will not judge you for your decision.”

Zuko nodded and took a sip of his own tea, letting the strong flavor of the oolong banish the sour taste in his mouth. “I thought I would feel satisfied or vindicated afterward. I just feel…sad.”

“You pitied her.”

“I shouldn’t, but yes. She lost her sons. If nothing else, Shura loved her children, and while they were terrible men, raised on the poison she fed them on her path to revenge, I believe her grief for them was real. Once we took them from her, her whole plan fell apart. She fell apart. She tried to kill herself in her cell, did you know that?”

Iroh nodded deeply. “I know that grief, Zuko. I still cannot believe that Shura was behind the whole thing. I blame myself.”

“Why?”

Iroh looked uncomfortable. “I was a different man in my youth, Zuko. I was brash and bold, determined to slay every dragon and win every battle. I was very much a spoiled prince, and I had the unfortunate tendency to use the women who flocked to me because of my crown. Shura was one of those women. She wanted me to marry her and I refused. I told her that I was not interested in marriage, broke her heart, and then turned around and married Kiyo. I could see how she might be bitter about the whole thing. I was not kind to her.”

“A broken heart isn’t an excuse though. I think she stopped wanting you back a long time ago, Uncle. She wanted the throne instead. That’s why she slept with my father, and why she tried desperately to sleep with me and when that didn’t work, she realized she’d have to find a way to trap you in a marriage she had to have known you wouldn’t want. Even if you’d married her back then, I think her greed and hunger for power would have still destroyed her. Don’t blame yourself.”

“I will try to remember that,” Iroh said lightly and took a sip.

Zuko put his tea down and bent forward with one arm on his knee. He rubbed at his face with his other hand, feeling weary and sick. “I’m just glad it’s over, Uncle. Maybe things can start to feel normal around here again.”

“Things seem calmer already.”

Zuko blew out a breath and sat back. “It does. We’ve interrogated all of the servants, but they’re all clean. Some of Shura’s men flipped on her and spilled details and names. We found several more of her spies in the army. None in the palace. It seems that Osamu and Aiko really were her only spies here. Or at least, we can’t seem to find any others. As of tomorrow, General Mak will pull back his guards on the palace and return them to active duty, leaving the palace guards in charge again. It’ll be nice to walk around this place without running into soldiers every five minutes. I feel like I’m living in a fishbowl.”

Iroh nodded deeply. “And the Council?”

Zuko groaned a little. “Not happy. Some of them were pretty offended that I didn’t trust them and had them put on house arrest after Osamu was exposed, but Guo seems to have talked them down.”

“You don’t think he had anything to do with Shura or Osamu?”

“We couldn’t find anything, and he swears that he didn’t know anything about Osamu’s activity, despite the fact that they were as thick as thieves. None of Shura’s men have named him, and he’s done everything he can to help in the effort to expose the rest of her men. My instincts are telling me that he really is clean. I think he really is loyal to me, even if he and I disagree about a lot of things.”

Iroh was quiet for a long moment. “Like the new Seneschal?”

Zuko pulled a grin. “Oh, he definitely had an opinion about that. The Council all agreed that Jiang was incompetent though and needed replaced. I think my choice was a little…surprising to them. They protested. I told them to fuck off and deal with it. In those words. There was a lot of yelling. I wasn’t nice about it.”

Iroh pulled a grin. “And where is the Seneschal now?”

“Overseeing a few household matters,” he said and then his grin faded. “How is Azula?”

Iroh’s smile was grim, but hopeful. “Broken hearted, though she won’t talk about what happened between her and Sokka when we left the South Pole. The medicine and therapy the doctors in Ba Sing Se are giving her have helped though.  Her panic attacks are not as frequent as they were in the beginning, in any case. She doesn’t talk to me much, but we have a routine. It’s nice to have company. I didn’t want to leave her in Ba Sing Se, but she insisted she could handle the tea shop in my absence.”

“You left Azula in charge of your shop?”

“I may yet regret it, but I need her to know that I trust her. Also, Mai is there with her. I trust her, if nothing else. Your sister and I have had a complicated relationship over the years. I saw too much of Ozai in her and I treated her unfairly because of that. I would like to do right by her. She’s my niece, and I love her. One day perhaps she will understand that. For now, it is enough to know that she is safe in my home. She experienced many horrors when she was alone, Zuko. Many hurts. They will take a long time to heal,” he said with a solemn weight in his voice.

“My offer to her stands. She can come home whenever she wants. We’ll make it work.”

“I do not think she is ready for that. Perhaps one day.”

“I know, but please let her know.”

“I will.” Iroh sighed. “I think she loved him very much.”

Zuko thought of Sokka, and the way he had looked at his sister. He couldn’t imagine what might have driven them apart. Maybe the odds had been too stacked against their relationship. Maybe love wasn’t enough to keep two different people together sometimes.

According to Aang’s last letter, Sokka was still in the South Pole, and had no immediate plans on returning to Republic City. All of Zuko’s letters to him had gone unanswered so far. Aang, Katara and Toph were due for a visit in a couple of weeks. His friends were feeling guilty about staying out of the fight, but Zuko knew that Mai had insisted in the first place, afraid that they might expose Sokka and Azula. After the failed assassination attempt at the ball, there had just been no time to contact the Avatar for help and the thought hadn’t even particularly crossed his mind anyway. Aang especially felt bad about leaving him to fight the Smoke Demons alone. He’d have to put the Avatar straight when he arrived.

“I wonder what happened between them?”

Iroh shook his head and then eyed Zuko knowingly. “Love is a mysterious thing.”

“Why did you fall in love with Aunt Kiyo?” Zuko asked suddenly.

Iroh’s eyes were misty and far away. “She was different from the others. She did not see my title. She saw me, all the flaws, all the warts and loved me anyway. She made me feel like I could be a better man, that I could do anything, so long as I had her by my side. I loved her so very much, Zuko. Losing her destroyed a part of me. Even now, the pain of losing her makes my heart ache, but the memory of her, how happy she made me, fills me with joy.”

“How did you know you wanted to spend the rest of your life with her?”

Iroh’s smile was soft and knowing. “I could not imagine my life without her in it. I suspect you know what I’m talking about, nephew.”

“I do.”

Iroh leaned forward and caught Zuko’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “Then perhaps you should do something about it?”

“I’m working on it,” Zuko said, feeling his face flush with embarrassment. A knock on the door, made him turn and Iroh dropped his hand with a reassuring pat. “Enter!”

The door opened and Ty Lee walked in, closed the door and stood at attention before him. “Fire Lord Zuko, General Iroh, I’m sorry to interrupt.”

Zuko smiled warmly at his old friend. It was her first week back on duty since her injuries, but she had recovered far more quickly than even Nam-Kyu had guessed. She stood before him in her full uniform, her long brown hair pulled back in a braid, her makeup perfect. She looked smart and capable, strong and mature. Her near-death experience had wrought a change in her. She was still an impish flirt, but there was a graveness in her eyes that had not been there before.

“It’s all right, Captain,” Zuko said to the new leader of the Kyoshi Warriors and the head of his bodyguards. “You look well.”

Ty Lee’s impish smile came out of hiding for a moment. “Thank you, Zuko. I’m just glad to be out of the hospital ward. I was going out of my skin in that bed. It’s good to be back on duty.”

“I missed you. Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” Zuko said, standing and walking over to her. Ty Lee beamed up at him.

“I’ll try not to,” she said and then glanced at Iroh. “How is Azula?”

“Well enough. I will send her your regards,” Iroh said, and Ty Lee looked momentarily uncomfortable at the thought. No doubt she was still feeling guilty about pulling a crossbow on Azula.

“Did you need something, Captain?”

“I’m never going to get used to you calling me that,” Ty Lee remarked, her lips twisting. “I feel like one of the other girls should have taken over. They’ve been Warriors longer than me, after all.”

“No one knows the palace and the people in it like you do, Ty Lee. You’re the perfect liaison,” he reminded her gently; they’d had this conversation when he and Suki had promoted her to the rank. “Besides, you’ve earned it.”

“Thank you, Zuko. I’ll try to do you proud,” she said and then drew herself up. “Anyway, the Seneschal is waiting in your suite. I believe they have a very important matter to discuss with you.”

Zuko nodded and glanced at Iroh, who finished off his tea. “Go ahead, nephew. I will see myself to my room. I’m very tired after this mornings trials.”

“I’ll see you later, Uncle,” Zuko said and then gestured Ty Lee out the door, where Chao-Ahn and Kikki joined them. They had been guarding his office door. Chao-Ahn had recovered from her burns during the battle with the Smoke Demons, though she would be scarred for life. He would forever be grateful to the Kyoshi Warriors for their sacrifices. He hoped they knew that. He thought they did.

Together they walked through the cool marble halls of the palace. Autumn had come, turning the air crisp, which made a nice change from the unbearable summer heat. They arrived at the doors to Zuko’s new suite. He wasn’t used to the place yet, but it was better than walking up and down six flights of stairs to get there. The earthbenders had also assured him that there were no hidden passages in the walls.

“Thank you, Captain, ladies. I don’t think I’ll need guards for the rest of tonight,” Zuko said and Ty Lee smiled a little.

“Have a good evening, Zuko,” Ty Lee said knowingly, and winked at him. Together she and the others walked away, leaving him to furrow his brow. Ty Lee definitely knew something he didn’t.

When he opened the door to his suite, he found himself surrounded by dozens of tiny flames. He closed and locked the door behind him, staring at the candles burning on every available surface. The room was aglow with light, warm after the cool hallway. Music tinkled through the air, soft and seductive.

“Good evening, Fire Lord Zuko.”

Zuko turned toward the balcony, where a lithe, gold-clad woman stood silhouetted against the dark backdrop of the night. His mouth went dry as he took her in. One leg was bare, peaking through a slit in her dress, which clung indecently to her every curve. Her hair was braided back, little curled strands framing her face. Her lips were red, her blue eyes blazing in the firelight.

“Seneschal,” Zuko said as Suki bit down on her lower lip. “What’s all this?”

“I’m seducing you,” she said, leaning away from the door frame as he walked toward her. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.

“That’s not very professional of you,” he said seriously. “What would the Council say about their new member?”

“Oh, probably that I’m a gold-digging Earth Kingdom hussy. The usual,” she said lightly as he reached out and stroked her neck. “I figure why not live up to their expectations?”

“They love a good scandal anyway.”

Suki ran her hand up his chest. “You mean sleeping with the Fire Lord isn’t usually part of the Seneschal’s duties?”

“Oh, it is, but Jiang was a selfish lover and I ended it fairly quickly,” he said, deadpan.

A laugh bubbled up out of Suki and she tipped back her head as he wrapped his arms around her. Her arms slipped around his neck. “You never stop surprising me, Zuko.”

“And you never stop amazing me,” he said seriously and kissed her. They lingered for a long moment, wrapped up in each other. When he pulled back, he put his forehead against hers. “I needed this. I needed _you_ , after…”

The words died in his throat. He knew that Suki knew though. She understood him better than anyone and she had known how difficult Shura’s sentencing had been on him. They had spent hours together, discussing it, holding each other as he’d come to his final decision. Still, it had not been easy.

“I know,” Suki said, her fingers stroking the hair on the back of his neck. He stared into her eyes, a soft smile on his lips. She was glowing, a woman full of fire and as strong as earth.

“You’re not regretting your career change?” he said, eager to change the subject. He wanted to put the Smoke Demons behind him permanently.

Suki thought a moment and then said, “No. It’s interesting. And I thought I would miss the girls, but we see each other every day. They’re still under me, in a way, and I’ve been able to tighten security on the whole palace. I can make sure that everyone is doing their best to protect you in a way that I couldn’t before.”

“The ultimate bodyguard,” he said as his hands slid to her hips. “I’m sorry you had to leave the Warriors.”

She shook her head. “Once a Warrior, always a Warrior. It was my choice to put up my fan, but I will always be a Warrior of Kyoshi, paint or no.”

“I hope you don’t regret it.”

“I think your Council is. They’re not happy with your for appointing me, and now they have to treat me like an equal.”

“You’ve always been their equal. It’s time they learned it,” he said and then kissed her again. Heat flashed in him as he held her close to him. A fierce feeling struck his heart, his uncle’s words echoing in his ears. In that instant, he made a decision his soul had already come to. When he pulled back, he whispered, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“No, you don’t understand. _I love you_ , Suki. I can’t imagine my life without you in it. I don’t want to.”

“Zuko…”

He took a deep breath and then plunged in, no regrets, no looking back.

“Would you marry me?”

* * *

Suki stiffened, her whole body tingling as Zuko’s words spilled down her skin, sinking into her soul like the warmth from a fire. She pulled back, staring at him in shock.

“What?”

Zuko’s eyes were soft in the flickering firelight. “Marry me.”

They stared at each other, naked hope in Zuko’s eyes, shock in hers that slowly turned to tears.

“Zuko… I…”

“You don’t have to say yes right now, just think about it, please? I just–”

She put her fingers on his lips, stilling him. She searched his gaze and then took a trembling breath. “Yes. My answer is yes. _Of course_ my answer is yes,” she said as she dropped her hand. Zuko let out a soft sound, a half-laugh, half-gasp of joy. Then he scooped her up, lifting her up off of her feet and twirling her around.

When he put her down again, he pulled her into his arms, kissing her lips quickly. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Are _you_ sure?”

Zuko cupped her face. “You’re the only thing in my life I’ve ever been sure of. I love you and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

She felt the same way, but the words wouldn’t come. She knew that he knew it anyway. She stared at him, so full of joy she felt like bursting. Months ago, she’d been in agony, guilt-ridden over her feelings for him, confused about her feelings for Sokka. Everything seemed so clear now. She found it hard to believe that they’d only been together for a couple of months. What would the rest of their life be like?

She couldn’t wait to find out.

“I love you so much,” she said as he buried his face in her hair, his warmth and his scent filling her to the brim. Zuko kissed her bare shoulder and then pulled back, pushing her hair behind one ear.

“I just have one last question for you, baby,” he said seriously.

“Anything,” she said, biting down on her lip. His eyes were soft and full of love. She would never get tired of the way he looked at her. She was addicted to the way he loved her.

Zuko stepped back and held out his hand to her. She took it and he twirled her around, bringing her back against his chest. He laced their fingers and then tipped her chin up to stare into her eyes. The expression on his face was intense but playful as his hand slid to her lower back, holding her against him.

“Would you dance with me?”

_(end)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working on a Sokkla-centric prequel/sequel companion piece to Addicted to Love, set during Sokka and Azula's time undercover, and a bit after Zuko sends them away. In case you're curious about how they fell for each other...and why they broke up. It's called Bonfire Heart.
> 
> And also, thank you so much for reading! Zuko/Suki isn't a popular ship, so sometimes I feel like I'm writing into a void, so thank you all for your comments and kudos. All of them mean a lot to me!


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